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SYLVAN SKETCHES; 

OR, 

A COMPANION 

TO 

THE PARK AND THE SHRUBBERY : 

WITH 

ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE WORKS OF THE POETS. 



BY THE AUTHOR OF THE 



FLORA DOMESTICA. 



c 



"And he spake of Trees, from the cedar-tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the 
hyssop that springeth up out of the wall." 




LONDON : 

PRINTED FOR WHITTAKER, TREACHER, AND CO, 
AVE^MARIA-LANE. 



1831. 



TO 

ER ABSENT SISTER, 
THIS VOLUME 

IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED 
BY 

THE WRITER. 



A 

LIST OF THE PLANTS 

DESCRIBED IN THIS WORK. 



Page 

A. 

Acacia Gleditsia Triacanthos 1 

see Robinia 347 

Agnus Castus V'ltex Agnus Castas ...... 4 

Ailanthus 6 

Alaternus Rhamnus Alateruus 7 

Alder Ainus 8 

Alder Buckthorn Rhamnus Frangula 13 

Alexandrian Laurel Ruscus Racemosus 14 

Arbutus 15 

Ash-tree Fraxinus 20 

Aspen Populus Tremula 30 

B. 

Barberi-y-bush Berberis 35 

Beech-tree Fagus Sylvaticus 38 

Birch-tree Betula 45 

Bird Cherry Prunus 51 

Boxthorn Lycium 53 

Bladdernut-tree Staphylea 54 

Bramble Rubus 56 

Butcher's Broom Ruscus 61 

Button-wood Cephalanthus 63 

C. 

Carob-tree Ceratonia Siliqua 64 

Carolina Allspice Calycanthus Floridus 66 



vi 



LIST OF PLANTS. 



Page 

Cassia 67 

Catalpa Catalpa Syringifolia 69 

Cedar Plniis Cedrus 70 

Celastras 88 

Colutea 90 

Chestuut-tree Castanea Vesca 92 

Cornel-tree Cornus 104 

Cypress Cupiessus 109 

E. 

Elder^tree Sambucus 124 

Elm-tree U'lmus 129 

F, 

Fir-tree PInus 14-1 

G. 

Glycine 149 

H. 

Hare's-ear Bupleuruin 150 

Hawthorn Crataegus 151 

Hazel Nut-tree Corvlus 156 

Holly- bush I'lex 164 

Hornbeam-tree Carpinus 170 

Horse Chestuut-tree ^'sculus 1 75 

I. 

I'tea . . -. I'tea Virginica J 80 

Ivy-bush Hedera Helix 181 

Judas-tree Cercis 190 

Juniper-bush Juniperus 1 92 

L. 

Larch-tree PinusLarix 201 

Laurel Prunus Laurocerasus 210 

Laurustinus Viburnum Tinus 213 

Lime-tree Tilia 216 

Liquidamber-tree Liquidambar 224 

M. 

Magnolia 226 

Maple A'cer .. . 231 

Medlar Mespilus , 245 



LIST OF PLANTS, vil 

Page 

Mountain Ash Pyrus Aucuparia 248 

Mulberry-tree Moms 254 

Myrica 264 

N. 

Nettle-tree Celtis 268 

New Jersey Tea-tree .... Ceanothus Americanus .... 273 

O. 

Oak-tree Quercus 2/4 

P. 

Phillpea 303 

Pine-tree Pinus . „ 304 

Pistacia 320 

Plane tree Platanus 327 

Pomegranate-tree Punica Granatum 333 

Poplar-tree Populus 338 

P.>^eudo Acacia Robinia 347 

Pyracantha Crataegus Pyracantha 349 

S. 

Service-tree Soibus 350 

Shrubby Syrian Mallow . . Hibiscus Syriacus 352 

Spindle-tree Euonymus 353 

Sumach Rhus 355 

T. 

Tamarisk Tamarix 359 

Trumpet-flower Bignonia 361 

Tulip-tree Liriodendrum 366 

Tupelo-tree Nyssa 369 

W. 

Walnut-tree Juglans 371 

Wayfaring-tree Viburnum Lantana 3S1 

WMiitebeam-tree Pyrus A'ria 382 

Widow-wail Cneorum Tricoccum 383 

Wild Cherry-tree Prunus A'vium 384 

Willow-tree , Salix 386 



Yew-tree 



Y. 

Taxu3 Baccita 



396 



PREFACE. 



As the intention of this volume is to give an 
unceremonious introduction of certain trees and 
shrubs to our readers, who are occasionally in the 
habit of meeting them w^ithout being acquainted, 
in many instances, even with their names, bota- 
nical language has been carefully avoided ; for 
although it would often have saved many words, it 
was considered that such terms would be intelligible 
only to the botanist, and that the botanist was 
precisely the last person to whom a description of 
common trees or shrubs would be likely to be of 
any use. One word only, as far as the writer re- 
members, has been introduced from the botanical 
vocabulary — the word pinnate ; and this occurs so 
often, and requires so much circumlocution to 



PREFACE. 



avoid, that it has been used : but an explanation 
has been given of this term, for those to whom it 
is not familiar, in the very first article in the vo- 
lume, the Acacia. 

It has been observed, and objected against the 
^Titer. that, in a former publication, of a similar 
nature to the present, there was wanting a spirit 
of religion, and that frecjuency of grateful reference 
to the Creator, which v\-ould seem natm'ally to flow 
from a contemplation of the wonders and beauties 
of creation. As some conjectures, likely to be 
injurious to her, have been formed with regard 
to the cause of this omission, and as the same re- 
mark may, vath equal justice, be made upon the 
present volmne, she feels it necessary to say a few 
words upon this subject. 

That she has not introduced the subject of re- 
liodon. is certainlv true : but she thinks it can 
scarcely be said with justice, that any book is want- 
ing in a spirit of religion which treats of the beauties 
of natm'e and of the pleasures to be derived from 
them. It is natural to us all to feel grateful to- 
wards those by whose means we enjoy any portion 



PKEFACE. 



xi 



of comfort or pleasure. The infant wlio receives 
its first sustenance from the bosom of its mother 
will smile in her face, and hold out its little arms 
towards her with the most ecstatic delight, when it 
has ceased to expect that nourishment. Children 
will always regard those kindly who are kind to 
them ; and is it to be supposed that the great and 
manifold blessings of heaven should fail to excite 
the gratitude of man ? In speaking of the beauties 
and properties of created things, we speak of the 
beneficence of the Creator ; and in recalling to the 
minds of men the pleasures to be derived from 
them, we awaken a grateful sense of the source 
from whence they flow. However men differ in 
the forms of religion, its essence is still the same ; 
and many who would listen without emotion to 
volumes of religious admonition, will feel their 
hearts glow with grateful admiration when they 
walk abroad in the sunshine. 

If a man stand upon a rising ground, and look 
abroad upon a fertile country, must he be told the 
source of all that beauty ? must he be reminded 
what he ought to feel before his heart will swell 



xii 



PREFACE. 



with a fulness of gratitude and love ? Oh ! surely 
not ; for 

" What he finds 

Of flavour or of scent in fruit or flower. 

Or what he views of beautiful or grand 

In nature, from the broad majestic oak 

To the green blade that twinkles in the sun. 

Prompts with remembrance of a present God." 

COWPER. 

Tell a child that he should love and be grateful 
to a kind mother for her care of him, and he will 
understand it to be right and just ; but if she 
amuse him, and make him happy in health, or 
soothe and nurse him tenderly in sickness, he will 
Jeel it to be inevitable. 

It has been observed, that no one can pursue 
the study of anatomy without being struck with 
admiration of the design and infinite variety of 
purpose displayed in the construction of the human 
frame : the same may be said of the humblest 
weed. , 

Of all the productions of nature, the vegetable 
world is svu'ely the most important to the well- 
being of man, and the source of his purest pleasures. 



PREFACE. 



xiii 



Some trees appear to supply every necessary of 
life to the inhabitants of the countries where they 
grow ; such are the Birch and the Fir to the in- 
habitants of Lapland, Sweden, and Norway ; the 
Lime to the peasants of Russia ; such is the Aloe 
in America, the Palm in Asia. 

" The more we study vegetable chemistry in the 
torrid zone," says Humboldt, " the more we shall 
discover in some remote spot, but attainable by 
the trade of Europe, and half-prepared in the 
organs of plants, products that we believe belong 
only to the animal kingdom, or which we obtain 
by processes of art, which, though sure, are often 
tedious and difficult^." 

He instances the wax afforded by one of the 
Palms, silk by another, and the nourishing milk of 
the Palo de vaca, the Butter-tree of Africa. Wax 
is obtained from other plants, as some species of 
the Myrica ; and tallow from the Tallow-tree 
(Croton sebiferum). IViany others might be men- 
tioned. Some authors have spoken facetiously of 
Shirt-trees, and Cap-trees. " We saw on the slope 

* Humboldt's Personal Narrative^ vol. \. p. 



PREFACE. 



of the Cerra Duida," says Humboldt, " Shirt-trees 
fifty feet high. The Indians cut off cylindrical 
pieces two feet in diameter, from which they peel 
the red and fibrous bark, without making any 
longitudinal incision. This bark affords them a 
sort of garment, which resembles sacks of a very 
coarse texture, and without a seam. The upper 
opening admits the head, and two lateral holes are 
cut to admit the arms*." The Cap-tree is a species 
of Palm-tree, of which the spathe furnishes a kind 
of pointed cap, resembling coarse net-workf. 
Strabo observes of the Cocoa Palm, that it is fit 
for three hundred and sixty uses. It affords 
wine," says Evelyn, " bread, milk, oil, sugar, 
vinegar, thread, cloth, caps, dishes, spoons, and 
other vessels and utensils, baskets, mats, umbrellas, 
paper, brooms, ropes, sails, and almost all that be- 
longs to the rigging of ships J." 

Humboldt remarks, that " it is curious to ob- 
serve, in the lowest degree of human civilization, 
the existence of a whole tribe depending on a 



* Humboldt's Personal Narrative, vol. v. p. 546. 
t Ibid. vol. iv. p. 226, 
t Evelyn's Sylva. 



PREFACE, 



single species of Palm-tree, similar to those insects 
which feed on one and the same flower, or on one 
and the same part of a plant 

To attempt to enumerate the uses of vegetable 
productions were to enter upon an endless theme 
indeed ; as vain would it be to attempt to describe 
their beauties ; but there is something beyond 
mere use, something beyond mere beauty, in their 
influence upon the human mind; — there is some- 
thing in flowers and trees which excites our kindest 
sympathies, which soothes our keenest sorrows. 
" All intelligent persons have embraced the solace 
of shady groves," says Evelyn ; and all devout 
persons have found how^ naturally they dispose our 
spirits to religious contemplation." 

The animal, or the mineral, can no more compare 
with the vegetable kingdom in the pleasure it 
affords to man, than in its importance in supplying 
him with the necessaries of life. Minerals are, no 
doubt, of great and important service to mankind ; 
and animals afford them pleasure, though it is to 
be feared the greatest is the delight they take in 



* Evelyn's Sylva, vol. v. p. 729. 



xvi 



PREFACE. 



seeking their destruction, as in hunting, shooting, 
fishing, &c. 

A man may, indeed, love his horse or his dog, 
his monkey or his cat ; may fondle a young tiger, 
or make a companion of a pet bear ; but he will 
not lounge in a menagerie with his book, take a 
walk to Exeter Change to relieve his melancholy, 
or retire to his stable, or his dog-kennel, at twilight, 
to indulge in tranquil meditation. If he be weary, 
he will love to repose in the shade, upon the soft 
green grass ; if he be sad, he will love to wander in 
groves and woods ; and, at the approach of sunset, 
he will doubly enjoy his book, his own thoughts, 
or the conversation of his friend, if he be seated 
under his favourite tree. 

" Our groves were planted to console at noon 
The pensive wanderer in their shades." 

COWPER. 

Mrs. RadclifFe gives a natural picture of the 
pleasure a thoughtful and domestic man takes in 
his garden, and of the forcible manner (scarcely 
inferior to the power of music itself) in which old 
associations are revived by the sight of trees. The 
poet might with equal truth have written : 



PREFACE. 



xvii 



Should some tree we used to love 

In days of childliood meet our eye," &c. 

" Here, under the ample shade of a Plane-tree, 
that spread its majestic canopy towards the river, St. 
Aubert loved to sit, in the fine evenings of summer, 
vfiih. his wife and children, watching beneath its 
foliage the setting sun ; the mild splendour of its 
light fading from the distant landscape till the 
shadows of twilight melted its various features into 
one tint of sober gray. Here, too, he loved to 
read and to converse with Madame St. Aubert, or 
to play with his children ; resigning himself to the 
influence of those sweet affections which are ever 
attendant on simplicity and nature*." 

His daughter is afterwards described as visiting 
this tree alone, for the first time, after an absence 
of some months, during which she had lost her 
father. 

" Emily, wandering on, came to St. Aubert's 
favourite Plane-tree, where so often at this hour 
they had sat beneath the shade together, and, with 
her dear mother, so often had conversed on the 



Mysteries of Udolpho, vol. i. 

b 



xviii 



PREFACE. 



subject of a future state. How often, too, had 
lier father expressed the comfort he derived from 
believing that they should meet in another world ! 
Emily, overcome by these recollections, left the 
Plane-tree 

There are several other passages on this subject, 
in the course of the same work. 

Cowper speaks with great interest of the trees 
he remembered when a boy, though they were 
then already old : had he watched the progress of 
their growth from their first springing, they would 
have been yet dearer to him. 

Claudian says of the old man of Verona, 

A neighbouring wood, born with himself, he sees. 
And loves his old cotemporary trees." 

In old times, it was a custom with parents to 
plant a tree at the birth of a son, and to judge by 
the growth and thriving of the tree of the pros- 
perity of the child. It is said in the life of Virgil, 
that the Poplar, planted on his birthday, far out- 
stripped all its contemporaries t. 

* Mysteries of Udolpho, vol. i. 
f Evelyn's Sylva. 



PREFACE. 



xix 



Wordsworth speaks somewhere of the tenderness 
of feeling excited by trees and flowers, a tenderness 
which, in the absence of those we love, is often 
wasted on the senseless weed. It is a conviction 
of this kindly influence of nature that has embold- 
ened the writer to bring the most opposite parties 
together amid these woody scenes ; not hesitating 
even to place Mr. Southey by the side of Lord 
Byron, without fear of the consequences, but rather 
indulging a faint hope that they may shake hands 
and be friends before they return to the irritating 
bustle of towns and cities. 

" The spleen is seldom felt where Flora reigns." 

Who does not feel the truth of these beautiful 
lines of Coleridge ? 

" A green and silent spot, amid the hills, 
A small and silent dell ! o'er stiller place 
No singing sky-lark ever poised himself. 
The hiUs are heathy, save that swelling sjope. 
Which hath a gay and gorgeous covering on. 
All golden with the never bloomless furze. 
Which now blooms most profusely ; but the dell. 
Bathed by the mist, is fresh and delicate 
As vernal corn-field, or the unripe flax. 
When, through its half-transparent stalks at eve. 
The level sunshine glimmers with green light. 

b 2 



XX 



PREFACE. 



OK I ''tis a quiet, spirit-healing nook I 
Wliicli all, metliinks, would love : but cliiefiy lie, 
The humble man, who, in his youthful years. 
Knew just so much of follr as had made 
His early manhood more securely "wise. 
Here he might lie on fern or withered heath. 
While from the singing lark (that sings unseen 
The minstrelsy that solitude loves best). 
And from the sun, and from the breezy air^ 
Sweet iniiuences trembled o'er his frame; 
And he, with many feelings, many thoughts, 
3Iade up a meditative joy, and found 
Religious meanings in the forms of nature ' 
And so, his senses gradually T\Tapt 
In a half sleep, he dreams of better worlds. 
And, dreaming, hears thee still, O singing lark, 
That singest like an angel in the clouds." 

Cowley, who was an enthusiastic lover of the 

country, and took o;reat delioiit in his g-arden, ex- 

claims : 

"Who that has reason and his smell, 
Would not among roses and jasmine dwell, 
Rather than aU his spirits choke 
With exhalations of dirt and smoke. 
And all th' uncleanness which does drown 
In pestilential clouds a populous town?" 

Spenser has pictiu^ed some spots so lovely, that 
nature herself could scarcely excel them : we must 
indulge in one or two of them : will the reader 
have any objection to accompany us ? 



PREFACE. 



xxi 



" Fresh shadows, fit to shroud from sunny ray ; 

Fair lawnds, to take the sun in season due ; 

Sweet springs in which a thousand nymphs did play ; 

Soft rumbling brooks that gentle slumber drew ; 

High-reared mounts, the lands about to view ; 

Low-looking dales, disloigned from common gaze ; 

Delightful bowers, to solace lovers true ; 

False labyrinths fond runners' eyes to daze : 
All which by Nature made, did Nature's self amaze. 

And all without were ^valks and alleys dight 
With divers trees, enranged in even ranks ; 
And here and there were pleasant arbors pight. 
And shady seats, and sundiy flow'ring banks. 
To sit and rest the walker's weary shanks." 

If the reader feel at all fatigued, we will leave 
him here to rest his " weary shanks," while we 
proceed a little further with the poet. 

How beautiful is that passage beginning — 

" There the most dainty paradise on ground 
Itself doth offer to his sober eye. 
In which all pleasures plenteously abound. 
And none does other's happiness envy : 
The 23ainted flowers, the trees upshooting high, 
The dales for shade, the hills for breathing space, 
The trembling groves, the crystal running by ; 
And that which all fair works doth most aggrace. 

The art which all that wrought appeared in no place." 



xxii 



PREFACE. 



We should be tempted to dwell longer here, but 
as we have further to go, we will not linger, but 
set sail for yon little island : 

" It was a chosen plot of fertile land 
Emongst wide waves set like a little nest. 
As if it had by Nature's cunning hand 
Been choicely picked out from all the rest. 
And laid forth for ensample of the best : 
No dainty flower or herb that grows on ground. 
No arboret with painted blossoms dress' d. 
And smelling sweet, but there it might be found 

To bud out fair, and throw her sweet smells all around. 

No tree whose branches did not bravely spring ; 
No branch whereon a fine bird did not sit ; 
No bird but did her shrill notes sweetly sing ; 
No song but did contain a lovely dit." 

A wood or a grove would seem imperfectly re- 
presented if it were not loud with music : the 
cheerful notes of birds joying in the sunshine are 
always enlivening, and they have been repaid by 
the poets with immortal honours. Spenser conveys 
the wounded squire to such a charming place, 
that he x^ould scarcely need any other cure than 
to dwell there : 

Into that forest far they thence him led. 
Where was their dwelling, in a pleasant glade. 



PREFACE. 



XXlll 



With mountains round about environed, 
And mighty woods, which did the valley shade. 
And like a stately theatre it made^ 
Spreading itself into a spacious plain ; 
And in the midst a little river played 
Emongst the pumy stones, which seemed to 'plain 
With gentle murmur that his course they did restrain. 

Beside the same a dainty place there lay. 
Planted with myrtle-trees, and laurels green. 
In which the birds sung many a lovely lay 
Of God's high praise, and of their love's sweet teen. 
As it an earthly paradise had been : 
In whose enclosed shadow there was pight 
A fair pavilion, scarcely to be seen. 
The which was all within most richly dight. 
That greatest princes living it mote well delight. 

Thither they brought that wounded squire, and laid 
In easy couch, his feeble limbs to rest." 

Tasso has some beautiful passages of this kind 
his Jerusalem Delivered : 

" V'e I'aura molle, e'l ciel sereno, e lieti 
Gli alberi e i prati, e pure e dolci I'onde, 
Ove fra gli amenissimi mirteti 
Sorge una fonte, e un fiumicel diffonde. 
Piovono in grembo all' erbe i sonni queti 
Con un soave mormorio di fronde ; 
Cantan gli augelli : i marmi io taccio e I'oro, 
Maravigliosi d'arte e di lavoro." 

Canto X. 



xxiv 



PKEFACE. 



For there, in thickest shade of myrtles fair, 
A crystal spring pour'd out a silver flood 
Amid the herbs, the grass, and flowers rare ; 
The falling leaves down patter' d from the wood ; 
The birds sang hymns of love ; yet speak I nought 
Of gold and marble rich, and richly wrought." 

Faiefax's Translation. 

Another charming passage there is in this 
poem, which Spenser has imitated in the twelfth 
canto of his second book : 

^^ezzosi augelli, infra le verdi fronde, 
Temprano a prova lascivette note ; 
]Mormora Taura, e fa le foglie e I'onde 
Garrir, che variamente ella percote 
Quando taccion gli augelli, alto risponde ; 
Quando cantan gli augei, piu lieve scote. 

Sia caso o d'arte, or accompagna, ed ora 

Alterna i versi lor la musica ora." 

Canto XYi. 

The joyous birds, hid under greenwood shade. 
Sung merry notes on every branch and bough ; 
The wind, that in the leaves and waters played. 
With murmurs sweet now sung, and whistled now ; 
Ceased the birds, the 'viands loud answer made, 
And while they sang, it rumbled soft and low ; 
Thus, were "it hap or cunning, chance or art. 
The -R^nd in this strange music bore its part." 

Fairfax's Translation. 



The beauties of the different seasons, particularly 



PREFACE. 



XXV 



of the spring and autumn, have frequently em- 
ployed the poet's pen : 

Moistj bright;, and green, the landscape laughs around. 
Full swell the woods ; their every music wakes, 
Mix'd in wild concert, with the warbling brooks 
Increased, the distant bleatings of the hiUs, 
And hoUow lows responsive from the vales ; 
Whence, blending all, the sweeten'd zephyr sings. 
****** 

Then spring the living herbs, profusely ^vild. 
O'er all the deep green earth, beyond the power 
Of botanist to number up their tribes : 
Whether he steals along the lonely dale 
In silent search, or through the forest, rank 
With what the dull incurious weeds account. 
Bursts his blind way ; or climbs the mountain-rock. 
Fired by the nodding verdure of its brow : 
With such a liberal hand has nature flung 
Their seeds abroad, blown them about in winds 
Innumerous, mix'd them with the nursing mould. 
The moistening current, and prolific rain." 

Thomson. 

Gawin Douglas has a lively description of the 
spring, which has been modernized by Mr. 
Fawkes. It is addressed to May, upon whom the 
beauties of spring are frequently lavished by the 
English poet. The poets of France and Italy 
more frequently bestow them upon April, who 



xxvi 



PREFACE. 



shows a more pleasant aspect and amiable dis- 
position towards them than she does in this 
country. 

The young and joyous spirit of spring sheds its 
sweet influence upon every thing : the streams 
sparkle and ripple in the noon-day sun, and the 
birds carol tipseyly their merriest ditties. It is 
surely the loveliest season of the year ! Yet, hold ! 
summer follows ; and how beautiful is summer ! 
the trees are heavy with fruit and foliage ; the sun 
is bright and cheering in the morning ; the shade 
of broad and leafy boughs is refreshing at noon ; 
and the calm breezes of the evening whisper gently 
through the leaves, which reflect the liquid light 
of the moon, when she is seen 

lifting her silver rim 

Above a cloud, and with a gradual swim 
Coming into the blue with all her light." 

And autumn — some will not hesitate to say that 
spring itself must yield to russet autumn. Yet 
one advantage has spring, in being the herald of 
the year's ripe beauties ; whereas autumn is daily 
warning us of the approach of the chill blasts of 
winter ; and winter, it must be confessed, is the 



PREFACE, 



xxvii 



least beauteous of the seasons, though for many of 
our home-loving countrymen, it has, perhaps, more 
comforU than any other season. Philips expatiates 
warmly upon the fantastic freaks of winter's frost, 
in his Letter from Copenhagen : 

" And yet but lately have I seen, even here. 
The winter in a lovely dress appear. 
Ere yet the clouds let fall the treasured snow. 
Or winds began through hazy skies to blow. 
At ev'ning a keen eastern breeze arose. 
And the descending rain unsullied froze. 
Soon as the silent shades of night withdrew. 
The ruddy morn disclosed at once to view 
The face of nature in a rich disguise, 
And brightened every object to my eyes : 
For every shrub, and every blade of grass. 
And every pointed thorn, seemed wrought in glass ; 
In pearls and rubies rich the hawthorns show, 
While through the ice the crimson berries glow ; 
The thick-sprung reeds which watery marshes yield 
Seem polished lances in a hostile field ; 
The stag, in limpid currents, with surprise. 
Sees crystal branches on his forehead rise ; 
The spreading oak, the beech, and towering pine. 
Glazed over, in the freezing aether shine ; 
The frighted birds the rattling branches shun. 
Which wave and glitter in the distant sun : 
When if a sudden gust of wind arise. 
The brittle forest into atoms flies ; 
The crackling wood beneath the tempest bends. 
And in a spangled shower the prospect ends." 



xxviii 



PREFACE. 



The following lines upon winter, addressed to 

the memory of Mr. Thomas Philips, would apply 

to the writer of this celebrated winter-piece : 

" Nor were his pleasures unimproved by thee : 
Pleasures he haS;, though horribly deform'd : 
The silver'd hill, the polish'd lake, we see. 
Is by thy genius fix'd, preserved, and warm'd." 

Chatterton. 

The foliage of the wood begins in early summer 

to exhibit a variety of hues ; greens infinitely 

varied ; but the rich though sober dress of autumn 

is diversified also with yellow, brown, and red. 

" But see, the fading many-coloured woods. 
Shade deepening over shade, the country round 
Imbrown ; a crowded umbrage, dusk and dun. 
Of every hue from wan declining green 
To sooty dark. These now the lonesome Muse, 
Low- whispering, lead into their leaf-strown walks, 
And give the season in its latest view. 

— Now the leaf 

Incessant rustles from the mournful grove ; 
Oft startling such as, studious, walk below. 
And slowly circles through the waving air." 

Thomson's Autumn. 

" So when derne Autumn, wyth hys sallowe hande. 
Tares the green mantle from the lymed trees. 
The leaves bespringed on the yellow strande 
Flie in whole armies from the blataunte breeze." 

Chatterton. 



PREFACE. 



xxix 



Chatterton poetically describes autumn as 
'^^ Wyth liys goulde honde guylteynge the falleynge lefe." 

Many writers have touched upon the difference 
in the colours of trees : 

Nor less attractive is the woodland scene. 

Diversified with trees of every growth, 

Alike, yet various. Here the gray smooth trunks 

Of ash, or lime, or beech, distinctly shine 

Within the twilight of their distant shades : 

There, lost behind a rising ground, the wood 

Seems sunk, and shortened to its topmost boughs. 

No tree in all the grove but has its charms. 

Though each its hue peculiar, paler some. 

And of a wannish gray ; the wiUow such. 

And poplar that with silver lines his leaf. 

And ash, far-stretching his umbrageous arm ; 

Of deeper green the elm ; and deeper still. 

Lord of the woods, the long-surviving oak. 

Some glossy leaved, and shining in the sun. 

The maple, and the beech of oily nuts 

Prolific, and the lime at dewy eve 

Diffusing odours : nor unnoted pass 

The sycamore, capricious in attire. 

Now green, now tawny, and ere autumn yet 

Have changed the woods, in scarlet honours bright." 

COWPER. 

Surely the poet takes some licence, in calling the 

Poplar blue: 

" Below me trees unnumber'd rise, 
Beautiful in various dyes : 



XXX 



PREFACE. 



The gloomy pine, the poplar blue^ 

The yellow beech, the sable jew, 

The slender fir that taper grows, 

The sturdy oak with broad-spread boughs." 

Dver's Grongar Hill. 

" Here rise no cliffs the vale to shade. 
But, skirting every sunny glade. 
In fair variety of green. 
The woodland lends its sylvan screen. 
PJoary, yet haughty, frowns the oak. 
Its boughs by weight of ages broke ; 
And towers erect in sable spire 
The pine-tree, scathed by lightning fire ; 
The drooping ash and birch between 
Hang their fair tresses o'er the green ; 
And all beneath at random grow 
Each coppice dwarf of varied show ; 
Or round the stems profusely twin'd. 
Fling summer odours on the wind."' 

Prior represents Solomon seeking knowledge of 
the learned, at once confessing his ignorance on 
subjects he is supposed to understand, and ex- 
pressing his desire to be informed : 

The vegetable world, each plant and tree. 
Its seed, its name, its nature, its degree, 
I am allowed, as Fame reports, to know. 
From the fair cedar on the craggy brow 
Of Lebanon, nodding supremely tall. 
To creeping moss, and hyssop on the wall : 
Yet, just and conscious to myself, I find 
A thousand doubts oppose the searching mind. 



PREFACE. 



xxxi 



I know not wliy the beech delights the glade 
With boughs extended, and a rounder shade. 
Whilst towering firs in conic forms arise. 
And with a pointed spear divide the skies ; 
Nor why again the changing oak should shed 
The yearly honour of his stately head ; 
Whilst the distinguish'd yew is ever seen. 
Unchanged his branch, and permanent his green. 
Wanting the sun, why does the caltha fade ? 
Why does the cypress flourish in the shade ? 
The fig, and date, w^hy love they to remain 
In middle station, and an even plain. 
While in the lower marsh the gourd is found, 
And while the hill with olive shade is crown'd ? 
Why does one climate and one soil endue 
The blushing poppy with a crimson hue^. 
Yet leave the lily pale, and tinge the violet blue ? 
Why does the fond carnation love to shoot 
A various colour from one parent root ; 
While the fantastic tulip strives to break 
In twofold beauty and a parted streak ; 
The twining jasmine, and the blushing rose. 
With lavish grace their morning scents disclose ; 
The smelling tuberose and jonquil declare 
The stronger impulse of an evening air ? 
Whence has the tree (resolve me), or the flower, 
A various instinct, or a difi^erent power ? 
Why should one earth, one clime, one stream, one breath, 
Raise this to strength, and sicken that to death ? 

Whence dees it happen that the plant which well 
We name the sensitive, should move and feel ? 
Whence know her leaves to answer her command. 
And with quick horror fly the approaching hand ?" 



xxxii 



PREFACE. 



The learned could not answer these inquiries ; 
neither could they have explained why certain 
plants are so choice in the selection of their friends, 
that they will turn from such as do not please 
them. We cannot suppose this to be without 
reason : plants are too amiable to indulge in cause- 
less antipathies. 

" On pretend encore/' says the Abbe Barthelemy^ que 
certains arbres ont une influence marquee sur d'autres arbres ; 
que les oliviers se plaisent dans le voisinage des grenadiers 
sauvages^ et les grenadiers des jardins dans celui des 
myrtes 

" They say, too, that certain trees have a marked influence 
on others ; that olive trees delight in the neighbourhood of 
the wild pomegranate, and that garden pomegranates delight 
in that of myrtles." 

" Everlasting hate 

The vine to ivy bears, nor less abhors 
The colewort's rankness ; but with amorous twine 
Clasps the tall elm : the Poestan rose unfolds 
Her bud more lovely near the fetid leek 
(Crest of stout Britons), and enhances thence 
The price of her celestial scent : the gourd 
And thirsty cucumber, when they perceive 
Th' approaching olive, with resentment fly 
Her fatty fibres, and with tendrils creep 
Diverse, detesting contact ; whilst the fig 



* Voyage d'Anacharsis, vol. v. p. 30. 



PREFACE. 



xxxiii 



Contemns not rue^ nor sage's humble leaf. 

Close neighbouring : th' Herefordian plant 

Caresses freely the contiguous peach. 

Hazel, and weight-resisting palm, and likes 

T' approach the quince, and the elder's pithy stem ; 

Uneasy, seated by funereal yew. 

Or walnut (whose malignant touch impairs 

All generous fruits), or near the bitter dews 

Of cherries." 

J. Philips. 

It is less a matter of surprise that men should 
not be able to explain these things, than that they 
should know so much as they do on these subjects ; 
and that they should be able, in some instances, to 
improve upon nature herself. 

" Et ssepe alterius ramos impune videmus 
Vertere in alterius, mutatamque insita mala 
Ferre pyrum, et prunis lapidosa rubescere corna. 

* ->r * -5^- * * 

Inseritur vero ex foetu nucis arbutus horrida, 
Et steriles platani malos gessere valentes, 
Castanea fagos, ornusque incanuit albo 
Flore pyri, glaridemque sues fregere sub ulmis. 

Nec modus inserere, atque oculos imponere simplex. 
Nam qua se medio tradunt de cortice gemmae, 
Et tenues rumpunt tunicas, angustus in ipso 
Fit nodo sinus : hue aliena ex arbore germen 
Includunt, udoque docent inolescere libro. 
Aut rursum enodes trunci resecantur, et alte 
Finditur in solidum cuneis via ; deinde feraces 
Plantse immittuntur : nec longum tempus, et ingens 

C 



xxxiv 



PREFACE. 



Exiit ad coelum ramis felicibus arbos^ 
Miraturque novas frondes, et noii sua poma." 

ViRGiLj Georgic ii. 

"Tis usual now an inmate graft to see 

With insolence invade a foreign tree : 

Thus pears and quinces from the crab-tree come. 

And thus the ruddy cornel bears the plum. 

******** 

The thin-leaved * arbute hazel-graffs receives, 
And planes huge apples bear, that bore but leaves. 
Thus mastful beech the bristly chestnut bears, 
And the wild ash is white with blooming pears, 
And greedy swine from grafted elms are fed 
With falling acorns^ that on oaks are bred. 

But various are the ways to change the state 
Of plants, to bud, to grafF, t' inoculate. 
For where the tender rinds of trees disclose 
Their shooting gems, a swelling knot there grows ; 
Just in that place a narrow slit we make. 
Then other buds from bearing trees we take ; 
Inserted thus, the wounded rind we close. 
In whose moist womb th' admitted infant grows. 
But when the smoother bole from knots is free. 
We make a deep incision in the tree. 
And in the solid wood the slip enclose. 
The batt'ning bastard shoots again and grows ; 
And in short space the laden boughs arise. 
With happy fruit advancing to the skies. 

* It is not easy to conjecture why the poet translates arbuta 
horrida, the thin-leaved arbutus : the leaves are not in them- 
selves thin, neither is the tree scantily furnished with them. 
Martyn supposes the word horrida to signify the ruggedness of 
the bark. 



PREFACE. 



XXXV 



The mother plant admires the leaves unknown 
Of alien treeSj and apples not her own." 

Dryden's Translation. 

The progress of the growth of plants is a very 
interesting subject, which Cowper has touched 
upon in an impressive manner in his Yardley Oak. 

Milton has been uncivil enough to trace the in- 
tellect of man to vegetables. 

So from the roots 

Springs lighter the green stalky, from thence the leaves 
More airy, last the bright consummate flower 
Spirits odorous breathes : flowers and their fruit, 
]Man's nourishment, by gradual scale sublimed, 
To vital spirits aspire, to animal. 
To intellectual ; give both life and sense. 
Fancy and understanding ; whence the soul 
Reason receives, and reason is her being. 
Discursive or intuitive." 

We have some individual trees of extraordinary 
magnitude, particularly Oak and Elm trees; but 
generally, the size of our trees bears no comparison 
with some described by travellers. The Palm 
trees are not in general remarkable for breadth, 
but some of them are of an extraordinary height : 
That which is called the Cabbage Palm, though 
scarcely two feet in diameter, will grow two 
hundred and fifty or three hundred feet high. On 

c S 



xxxvi 



PREFACE. 



another, (which lie calls the Seje Palm,) Humboldt 
says he estimated the number of flowers on one 
raceme only, at forty-four thousand ; and of the 
fruit produced thereby, at eight thousand. From 
this fruit, a beverage is obtained which tastes like 
milk of almonds, and is exceedingly nourishing. 
The Indian jugglers, he tells us, are paid by the 
people to go into the forests and sound the botuto, 
or sacred trumpet, under these trees, " to force the 
tree," as they say, " to yield an ample produce the 
following year*." 

The Fan Palm, or Talipot tree, although the 
trunk is not particularly large, bears a leaf large 
enough to cover twenty men. It will fold like a 
fan, and is then no bigger than a man's arm. The 
whole leaf, when spread out, is round ; but, for use, 
it is cut into sections ; these the people lay upon 
their heads, when they travel, with the point 
foremost, to cut their way through thickets. 
Soldiers carry them, not only to shade them from 
the sun, or keep them dry, in case of rain ; but 
also to make tents to sleep under. 

* Humboldt's Personal Narrative^ vol. v. p. 152. 



PREFACE. 



xxxvii 



A tree has been described as growing in China, 
of a size so prodigious, that one branch of it only 
will so completely cover two hundred sheep, that 
they cannot be perceived by those who approach 
the tree ; and another so enormous, that eighty 
persons can scarcely embrace the trunk. 

What a magnificent tree is the Banyan, or In- 
dian Fig tree, or more properly we should say, 
forest ! A tree of this kind has been described as 
370 feet in diameter, the circumference of its 
shadow at noon measuring 1116 feet; and that of 
the several stems, of which there were fifty or sixty, 
921 feet. There is a celebrated Banyan near 
Gombroon, on the Persian Gulf, and another near 
Fort St. David's, in the East Indies, which is com- 
puted to cover near 1700 yards. " The Gentoos," 
says Martyn, " are almost as sensibly hurt if any 
one cuts or lops any of the branches, as if he had 
mutilated or destroyed a cow, which they hold in 
so much veneration." Thevenot speaks of it by 
the title of Va?^ tree ; he says it is also called Ber 
treCi and Arhre des racines (tree of roots,) and that 
it is held sacred by the Gentiles of India*. 

* Thevenot's Voyage de Levant^, Part III. p. 73^ 



xxxviii 



PREFACE. 



One of the species^ under which it is said the 
god Vishnu was born, and which is thence held 
sacred to him, is named hy Linn^us, religiosa. 

The reader will remember Milton's celebrated 
description of the Indian Fig : 

The fig-tree, not that kind for fruit renowned^, 
But such as at this day, to Indians known^ 
In Malabar or Deccan, spreads her arms. 
Branching so broad and long, that in the ground 
The bending twigs take root, and daughters grow 
About the mother tree, a pillared shade 
High over-arched; and echoing walks between." 

The trunk of the Vine tree, which, as Evelyn 
observes, is " more like rope than timber, is, in a 
favourable soil, found as big as a man's body. A 
Vine furnished the doors of the cathedral at Ra- 
venna, some of the planks of which measured 
twelve feet in length, and fifteen inches in breadth. 

The Adansonia^ or Ethiopian Sour Gourd, 
though not remiarkably high, is of amazing bulk. 
The traveller from w^hom it takes its name mea- 
sured several from sixty-five to seventy-eight feet 
in circumference, and describes the branches as 
from forty-five to fifty-five feet in length, and each 
branch large enough for a monstrous tree. The 
Bombax^ or Silk Cotton tree, is one of the tallest 



PREFACE. 



xxxix 



trees of both Indies ; the trunks are immense, and 
are hollowed into canoes. In the first voyage of 
Columbus, it is related that a canoe made of one 
of these trees, was seen at the island of Cuba, which 
was ninety-five palms in length, wide in proportion, 
and capable of containing one hundred and fifty 
men. It has been affirmed that some of these trees 
in the West Indies are too large to be embraced 
by sixteen men, and so high that an arrow cannot 
be shot to their top. Another traveller, speaking 
of some that he saw in Africa, asserts that tv»^enty 
thousand men closely armed might, without in- 
convenience to one another, stand under the 
branches of one of them. Thevenot speaks of a 
tree in the island of Stanchio, of which he says, it 
has such a prodigious extent of shade, that it 
would easily cover two thousand men ; that its 
branches are supported by stone columns and pil- 
lars of wood ; that there are under it several shops, 
and benches to sit upon ; and that the tree is like 
the Sycamore, except that the fruit resembles the 
chestnut, and serves to tan leather"^. 

* Thevenot's Voyage de Levant, Part I. p. 210. 



xl 



PREFACE. 



Asia, Africa, and America, abound with a variety 
of curious and interesting trees, not remarkable for 
size. Among others may be mentioned the Bread- 
fruit tree, the fruit of which supplies the people 
with bread eight months in the year, only for the 
trouble of gathering it. The best kind is that 
which grows in Otaheite. 

The Bertliolletia excdsa, or Juv'ia of the In- 
dians, which Humboldt describes as ^' one of the 
most majestic trees of the forests of the New 
World," is remarkable from the short space of 
time in w^hich its fruit is formed. This fruit is 
know^n by a variety of names ; as Nuts of the 
Amazon, Almonds of Peru, Almonds, or Chestnuts 
of Brazil, &c. but their most usual name in this 
country is, Brazil Nuts. The nuts were known in 
Europe as early as the sixteenth century ; but were 
supposed to grow' on separate stalks. The tree 
which produces them is now better know^n, and 
it has been discovered that they grow^, tw"enty or 
more together, in a shell as large as the human 
head. The nut itself is enclosed in a tolerably 
hard covering, yet the drupe or shell which con- 
tains them is half an inch thick, of very hard 



PREFACE. Xli 

wood ; and this fruit is formed in tlie space of fifty 
or sixty days. 

The fruit falls to the ground, when ripe, with a 
prodigious noise ; and it is thought dangerous to 
walk in the forests at that time, from the weight 
with which they fall from a height of fifty or sixty 
feet. A writer of the seventeenth century says, 
that no one could venture near them without 
covering his head and shoulders with a buckler of 
very hard vvood. Humboldt says these bucklers 
are not worn by the natives of Esmeralda, but that 
they spoke of the danger they incurred. The In- 
dians celebrate the harvest of this fruit with 
dancing and excessive drinking*. 

Mr. Humboldt did not see this fine tree in blos- 
som, but understood that the blossoms were violet- 
coloured, and not produced till the tree was fifteen 
years old. The trunk is generally two or three 
feet in diameter, and the tree an hundred or an 
hundred and twenty feet high. 

Independently of their own beauty, and of the 
pleasure men take in walking or sitting in their 



Humboldt's Personal Narrative^ vol. v. p. 532, &c. 



xlii 



PREFACE. 



shade, trees may claim an interest with men of all 
tastes and professions. If a man be a soldier, he 
may remember trees which have sustained whole 
armies during a siege, which have concealed them 
from the observation of the enemy, and w^hich 
have furnished them with fires when they had no 
snug chimney-corner at hand ; if he be a lawyer, 
how many pounds have been poured into his 
pocket by litigation concerning w^oods, parks, and 
plantations ; if he be a physician, he will know that 
much of his power to remove disease, and to re- 
store health to man, is obtained from trees, from 
their roots, their bark, their gum, their leaves, 
their blossoms, their fruit, and their seeds. 

Philosophers, and men of letters, will remember 
Plato's lectures to his disciples ; the divine will 
think of the Olive branch, and will consider that 
Christ himself loved his garden, and sought the 
neighbourhood of trees, for meditation ; and even 
the mere man of commerce will not think without 
pleasure of the profits of solid timber. As to 
poets, they always did love trees, and always will. 

They thought of no other heaven," says Evelyn, 



PREFACE. 



xliii 



speaking of the poets of ancient times, " on earth, 
or elsewhere ; for when Anchises was setting forth 
the felicity of the other life to his son, the most 
lively description he could make of it was to tell 
him 

— — Lucis habitamus opacis." 

Virgil, ^ii. vi. 

" We dweU in shady groves." 

And when Eneas had travelled far to find those 
happy abodes — 

" Devenere locos laetos, et amoena vireta 
Fortunatum nemorum, sedesque beatas." 

Virgil, ^n. vi. 

" They came to groves, of happy souls the rest. 
To evergreens, the dwellings of the blest." 

The ancients would frequently sleep upon the 
leaves of some particular trees, which they supposed 
to have powers of inspiration ; the Agnus-Castus 
was thought to compose the mind, and to bring 
true visions to the sleeper ; and the Laurel was 
particularly efficacious in inspiring poetic fury. 
It might be well for some of our modern writers to 



Xliv PREFACE. 

sleep on such a bed. Xot tliat any uncivil insi- 
nuations are intended : perhaps Apollo has, in the 
present age. a greater number of legitimate children 
than ever were known to live at the same time : but 
if akeady we have fine poets, such inspiration might 
produce Shak spear es. 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



ACACIA. 

GLEDITSIA. 

legumixosj:. polygamia dkecia. 

The tree commonly called in this country the Acacia^, is the 
Robinia^ or Pseudo-acacia ; but that here meant is the three- 
thorned Acacia, or Honey-locust tree, botanically called Gleditsia 
triacanthos. — French, fevier. 

The Gleditsia triacanthos, or Honey-locust tree, is 
a native of North America, remarkable for its brilliant 
green ; the leaves are what the botanists term doubly 
pinnate, or bipinnate, having nine or ten pairs of small 
leaves, or leaflets, placed opposite, at certain distances, 
upon a common stalk, which forms the pinnate leaf : of 
these four or fi\'e pairs are placed, in the same regular 
manner, upon a second stalk, or midrib, — the whole, in 
botanical language, forming a bipinnate leaf. The flowers 
are small, and too nearly of the colour of the leaves to 
make any show ; but the pod or legume which succeeds, 
being a foot or a foot and a half long, and of a dark 
brown colour, has a curious effect contrasted with the 
cheerful colour of the foliage. 

The trunk is guarded with thorns three or four inches 
in length, having smaller ones coming out from their 
sides nearly at right angles ; these are red, and have a 
very singular appearance. The branches also are armed 
with red thorns, proportionably smaller. 

B 



2 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



The leaves of this tree, which spread open in fine 
weather, \^'ill di'oop at the approach of bad weather, and 
their upper surfaces nearly join, as though in a sleeping 
state. In this country the leaves do not appear till June, 
and the flowers not till the end of July. It does not 
produce any blossom until it has acquired a considerable 
height and size. 

There is a variety with fewer spines, smaller leaves, 
and oval pods, which is, not verv accurately, named the 
Gleditsia inermis, the unarmed Gleditsia. The name 
was more accurately given by Limifeus to one of the 
Acacias of the genus Mimosa, now called Mimosa Hous- 
toni^ which has no thorns. The Acacias mentioned by 
travellers are generally those of the Mimosa genus. 

Sir AiThibald Edmondstone speaks of the Acacia as 
reminding liim of Enghsh scenery ; the kind mentioned 
seems to be that called the Eg^^tian Acacia : 

" Having explained to the inhabitants that our object 
was old buildings, they informed us there were some in 
the neighboui'hood. Accordingly, in the evening, we 
rode to see them; and, in our way, passed through a 
beautiful wood of acacias, the foHage of which, at a little 
distance, brought Enghsh scenerv to mv recollection. 
The trees far exceeded in size any I had ever seen of 
the kind ; and upon measuring the trunk of one, it proved 
to be seventeen feet three inches in circumference 

Thevenot, speaking of the plain called the Desert of 
Sin (the place where the Israehtes regretted the onions 
of Egypt, and murmui'ed against God, and where 
the manna was sent them), says, " In tliis plain we saw 
several Acacia trees, from which is obtained the gmn, 
also called Akakia by the Arabs. It is necessaiy to ob- 



* Journey to two of the Oases of Upper Egypt, page 44. 



ACACIA. 



serve, that the Acacia-trees now so common in France 
were brought to us from America, and do not afford tliis 
gum ; and that wliich is called Acacia in the shops is the 
inspissated juice of the Primus sp'mosa, and comes to us 
from Germany. These trees are neither higher nor larger 
than our common wdllows, but they have very thin leaves, 
and thorns. The Arabs gather the gum in the autumn, 
without wounding the trees, for it flows spontaneously*.'^ 

This account of their size is rather at variance with 
the mention made of these trees by most travellers ; for 
they are generally described as of a gigantic height and 
prodigious bulk. The kind mentioned by Sir Archibald 
Edmondstone is the Eg^yptian Acacia, or true Mimosa, 
Mimosa vera, \\'hich is the species from which the gum 
is obtained. IVIaximihan, and some other writers, speak 
of the Acacia or Mimosa in general, without noting the 
species. Probably the trees described by Thevenot were 
young, or in a soil not favourable to their growth. The 
Acacias he speaks of as having been brought to France 
from America, are, doubtless, the Gleditsia, or Locust- 
trees afore-mentioned. 

Dr. Shaw describes the Acacia vera as the largest and 
most common tree in the deserts of Arabia; and sup- 
poses it to be the shiitim wood, or shittah tree of the 
scriptures. Mr. Bruce describes it as the tree of all 
deserts from the northernmost parts of Arabia to the 
extremity of Ethiopia. He says the gum is obtained by 
making incisions with an axe. Some authors compare 
the size of this tree with that of a large mulberry tree. 
The acacia verce succm of the ancients is supposed to 
have been expressed from the unripe pods-|-. 

* Thevenot's Voyage du Levant, Part I. p. 318. 

t See Dr. Harris's Natural History of the Bible, p. 345. 

B 2 



AGNUS CASTUS. 



VITEX AGNUS-CASTUS. 

VERBENACE^. DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA. 

Named Vitex from the flexibility of the twigs : the word Agnus 
in Greek has the same signification as CasfAis in Latin, chaste in 
English. The name refers to the celebrity the seeds of this shrub 
enjoyed in old times, for promoting chastity; wherefore, in the 
festivals in honour of Ceres, the Athenian matrons strewed them 
on their couches. From the same notion, and from the aromatic 
pungency of the seeds, it has been also called monk's-pepper; 
and hemp tree, from the form of the leaves. — French^ gattilier. — 
Italian, agno casto, vitice. 

This shrub grows eight or ten feet high, branched all 
the way ; the leaves grow seven together at the end of 
a long footstalk, something in the manner of lupine 
leaves; gradually diminishing from the middle one to 
those on the outside : they are dark green on the upper 
side, hoary beneath. The flowers grow in spikes, a foot 
or more in length, at the ends of the branches ; they are 
white or blue, and set in whorls at regular distances. 
They blow late in the year; the shrub is often in full blos- 
som in the middle of October. In warm seasons when 
the flowers open freely, their odour is very pleasant. 

The Agnus castus is a native of Sicily, Naples, 
Egypt, Tunis, Aleppo, Virginia, and the islands of the 
Archipelago. It was cultivated in this country as early 
as the year 1570, but does not produce seeds here. It 
is recorded that Juno was brought into the world under 
a shrub of Agnus castus, on the banks of the Imbrasus, 



AGNUS CASTUS. 



5 



in the Isle of Samos; and that particular shrub was long 
preserved and venerated in the temple of that goddess, 
in Samos*. 

Chaucer represents Diana as wearing a chaplet of 
Agnus castus, and bearing a branch of it in her hand. 

See ye not her that crowned is/' (quoth she) 
" All in white — Madame/' (quoth I) yes :" 

That is Diane, goddesse of chastite ; 
And for because that she a maiden is_, 
In her hand the braunch she beareth this. 
That agnus castus men call properly." 

Flower and the Leaf. 

* See Tournefort's Voyage du Levant, vol. ii, p. 121 ; and 
Voyage d'Anacharsis, vol. vi. p. 295. 



AILANTHUS, 



TEREBINTACE.t. POLYC-AMIA MOXCECIA. 

From the Araboyna name, aylanto^. which sigiiifiea the tree of 
heaven. — French, langit. 

The Ailanthus grows forty or fiftv feet high, with a 
straight trunk, covered w-ith a oTav bark : the leaves are 
large and smooth ; the blossoms ai'e numerous, but not 
of a pleasant odour. This is a quick-growing tree in 
our cKmate. is handsome, and verv proper for ornamental 
plantations. The wood is hard, heaw, glossv. and sus- 
ceptible of a very fine poH-h. From the bark, when 
wounded, flows a resinous juice, which hardens in a few 
davs. 

The Ailantlius is a native of China, and was fii'st 
raised in England by Mr. ^Miller, and Phihp Cai'teret 
Webb. Esq., about the year 1T51. It does not produce 
fruit in this country. 

This tree was formerly considered as a -pecies of Rhus, 
and is memorable among us." observes ]\Ir. ]\Iart\TL. 

for the dispute it occasioned between ]\Ir. Ellis and 
]\Ir. ^Miller, which is recorded in the Pliilosophical 
Transactions. The latter contended that it was the Fasi- 
no-ki tree, or spurious Varnish-tree of the Japanese ; but 
it is clear that he was mistaken, for the leaves of that 
tree are entire, and have none of the singular glands 
which are found in thi.> : nor does the Ailantlius ^ueld 
anv juice."' 

In the last remark, Tvlr. ^uartyn himself appears mis- 
taken; since it seems, and by his ov.u accoimt. that the 
bai'k when wounded does yield a juice, more or les-. 



ALATERNUS. 



RHAMNUS ALATERNUS. 

RHAMXE.I. PENTAXDRIA MOXOGYKIA. 

French, alaterne; Italian, alaterno. 

The Alatemus is an evergreen shi'ub, with fine glossy 
leaves: the honey-breathing blossoms, as Evelyn terms 
them, come out in May ; they are numerous, but very 
small, and are very grateful to bees. 

It is a native of the south of Europe and Barbary, 
and Avas introduced into this country in 1629- " I have 
had the honour," observes the amiable Evelvn, " to be 
the first who brought it into use and reputation in this 
kingdom, for the most beautiful and useful of hedges and 
verdure in the world (the swiftness of the growth con- 
sidered), and propagated it from Cornwall even to Cmn- 
berland."' 

Parkinson speaks of it as a rare plant in his time. 
" The beauty and the verdure of the leaves,^"* says he, 
" abiding so fresh all the vear, doth cause it to be of the 
greater respect ; and, therefore, findeth place in their 
gardens only that are curious conservers of all Nature's 
beauties.'' 

The fresh young shoots will give a fine yellow colour 
to M'ool; and the fishermen in Portugal dye their nets 
red with a decoction of the bark. 

There is a varietv called the Gold and Silver Alaternus ; 
the leaves being striped vnth vellow and white ; but the 
variations of colour in the foliage of shrubs usually pro- 
ceed from want of strength. 



ALDER TREE. 

ALNUS. 

BETULIDEiS. MONCECIA TETRANDRIA. 

Alder, aller, oiler, owler ; French, autie, vergne ; Italian, alno, 
ontano. 

The common Alder, Alnus glutinosa, may, in the 
marshy soil it loves, be reared to a height of forty feet : 
the leaves are nearly circular, and of a dark green; 
the nerves on the lower side have white spongy tufts at 
the angles of their ramifications, like the leaves of the 
lime-tree. The bark is of a blackish hue, and, in old 
trees, full of clefts : 

" As Alders, in the spring, their boles extend. 
And heave so fiercely that the bark they rend." 

Dryden's Virgil. Eclogue 10. 

This tree is not only a native of our island, but of 
Europe, from Lapland to Gibraltar ; and of Asia, from 
the White Sea to Mount Caucasus. With us, it flowers 
in March and April. 

The wood is valuable from its property of remaining 
sound a long time under water ; on this account it is used 
for piles driven into the ground for the support of build- 
ings in marshy places, and is said to have been used 
under the Rialto at Venice : in Flanders and Holland 
it is raised in abundance for such purposes. It also makes 
excellent water-pipes; and serves for various domestic 
purposes, as spinning-wheels, milk-vessels, bowls, spoons. 



ALDER TREE. 



9 



&c. The roots and knots furnish a beautiful veined wood 
to the cabinet-maker. Alder-wood is generally red ; but 
when it has lain in bogs, it becomes black. In the High- 
lands, chairs are made of it, which are very handsome. 

The branches make good charcoal, and the bark is 
used by tanners and leather-di'essers. Mr. Hall says, 
that the country-people of Scotland often make their own 
shoes ; and, following the example of their forefathers, to 
avoid the tax upon leather, privately tan hides with the 
bark of birch and alder 

The bark of Alder is also used by fishermen for their 
nets; and the fresh wood and the young shoots, ac- 
cording to the season in which they are taken, and the 
manner in which they are prepared, furnish dye of various 
colours : the young shoots dye yellow, and with a Httle 
copperas, a yellowish-gray ; when cut in March, they 
give a cinnamon colour; if dried and powdered, a fine 
tawny. The fresh wood dyes a rappee-snufF colour, the 
catkins, green ; and the bark dried, powdered, and mixed 
with logwood, bismuth, &c., yields the colour called boue 
de Pains. It is said that the Laplanders masticate the 
bark, and, with the saHva so coloured, stain their leathern 
garments red. 

The Alder makes good hedges in boggy ground, im- 
proves the soil, and tends to keep up the banks : the 
shade does not injure the growth of grass ; some say that 
it cherishes it : 

" The Alder, whose fat shadow nourisheth ; 
Each plant set neere to him long flourisheth." 

W. Browne. 



* HalFs Travels in Scotland, voL ii. p. 401. 



10 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



The boughs cut in summer, and left to decay during 
the winter, serve the purpose of manure. 

The Hoaiy, or Silver-leaved Alder, Ahius incana, is of 
smaller growth than the common Alder ; the leaves are 
not so round, and are quite white on the under side ; the 
wood is white, and of a closer texture. This is a native 
of Switzerland, Dauphine, Siberia, the islands beyond 
Kamtchatka, &c. — In direct opposition to the common 
Alder, it flourishes in a dry, sandy soil. It was first 
brought into England in the year 1780, by Mr. John 
Bush. 

The Aider is said to have afforded the first material 
for boats : 

" Tunc alnos primum fluvii sensere cavatas." 

Virgil. Georgic I. 

Then did the rivers first feel the hollow'd alders." 

Martyn's Translation. 

Referring to this passage, Martyn observes, that the 
Alder may also have given the first idea of navigation. 
It grows commonly on the banks of rivers ; and he sup- 
poses that one of these trees, hollowed by age, may have 
fallen into the water, and so given the first idea of a boat 
to the spectators. Evelyn remarks, that the Alder is of 
all others the most faithful lover of watery and boggy 
places,— a taste to which Virgil frequently alludes : 

Flurainibus saliceS;, crassisque paludibus alni 
Nascuntur." Georgic. II. 

" Willows grow about rivers, and Aiders in muddy marshes." 

Martyn's Translation. 

Homer also more than once mentions it as grooving 
near the water : 



ALDER TREE. 



11 



from out the cavern ed rock;, 



In living rills^ a gushing fountain broke : 

Around it and above, for ever green. 

The bushing alders formed a shady scene." 

Odyssev, bookix. 



they journey down 



The caverned way descending from the town, 
"VVliere from the rock, with liquid lapse, distils 
A limpid fount, that, spread in parting riils. 
Its current thence to serve the city brings : 
A useful vrork, adorned by ancient kings, — 
Neritus, Ithacus, Polyctor, there 
In sculptured stone immortalized their care : 
In marble urns received it from above, 
And shaded with a green surrounding grove, 
"WTiere silver alders in high arches twined. 
Drink the cool stream, and tremble to the wind." 

Odyssey, book xvii. 

In the second Georgic, the Roman poet again refers 
to its use in boats : 

" Necnon et torrentem undam levis innatat alnus 
Missa Pado 

" The light alder swims also on the rough flood, when it is 
launched on the Po." 

Martyn's Translation. 

Fairfax, in his translation of Tasso, enlarging upon 
the original in so inviting a passage, describes 
" The Alder, owner of all waterish ground." 
Lucan designates it as 

" The floating Alder by the current borne." 

Pharsalia, book iii. 

Spenser, in his " Colin Clout's come home again," 
speaks of the Alders on the banks of the Mulla, where 
it is probable he mav ha^re reposed under their shade : 



12 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



" One day, quoth he, I sate, as was my trade^ 
Under the foot of Mole, that mountain here, 
Keeping my sheep among the eooly shade 
Of the green Alders on the MuUa's shore." 

The Heliades, fabled by the ancients to have been 
transformed into poplars, have been said by some writers 
to have been changed to Alders : others will have it to 
be larches. Porcacchi, in his explanatory notes to the 
Arcadia of Sannazaro, apparently unconscious of the con- 
tradiction, ascribes this origin both to the Alder and the 
poplar*. It is probable, says Dr. Hunter, that the 
poets chose such aquatics as best suited their purpose-f*. 



* Venetian edition, 1583, pp. 24, 259. 



t See Poplar. 



ALDER BUCKTHORN. 



RHAMNUS FRANGULA. 

RHAMNE^. PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 

Black berry-bearing Alder. Black dogwood. — French, burgene. — 
Italian, alno nero. 

This is one of the unarmed species of the Rhamnus ; 
it is a black-looking shrub, growing in the woods : the 
lea\'es are about two inches long, and one broad in the 
middle; the flowers make but little show, being very 
small, and of an herbaceous colour ; and these are suc- 
ceeded by black berries. 

In its wild state this shrub seldom exceeds four feet in 
height, but by cultivation may be reared to ten or twelve 
feet. It is a native of the greater part of Europe, and 
of Siberia. From the bark and the berries are prepared 
dyes of various colours, blue, green, yellow, and black. 
The blossoms are particularly grateful to bees, and the 
leaves are voraciously devoured by goats. 

The wood is very Hght, and the charcoal formed from 
it is mvich prized by the manufacturers of gunpowder, 
who bay up all they can procure of it, and use it only 
for the very best gunpowder. 

The juice expressed from the berries being boiled 
down with some gum arable and a little alum, and then 
poured into bladders to grow hard, is the colour called 
sap green. 



ALEXANDRIAN LAUREL. 



RUSCUS RACEMOSUS. 

SMILACEiE. DIGECIA SYNGENESIA. 

According to j\Iiiler, this genus is named RuscuSj from Rusticus, 
because the countrymen in old times^ used to lay the leaves on 
their bacon and hams to defend them from mice " It is called 
Alexandrian Laurel, continues he, (for rather a curious reason) 
because it is fit for making Laurel garlands ; and from one of the 
species growing in Alexandria. 

This is an elegant shrub, as Rousseau justly terms it, — 
a beautiful evergreen ; and is, at full grov/tli, about four 
feet high : the leaves are of a lucid green, ending in acute 
points, and placed alternately upon the branches, without 
any foot-stalk. The flowers, of a greenish yellow, grow 
in bunches at the ends of the branches, and are succeeded 
by small red berries. 

It is a native of Portugal, and of the islands of the 
Archipelago ; and was cultivated in the Chelsea Botanic 
Garden, in the year 1739. 

It has been supposed to be the plant with which the 
ancients crowned their victors; the sam.e notion pre- 
vailed of some other species of this genus, before this was 
so well knovra, — equally without foundation in both cases. 
It is now well ascertained that the bay of the ancients 
was the sweet bay, Laurus nohilis. 



ARBUTUS. 



ERICIXE^. DECANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 

The common English name is the Strawberry-tree, the fruit 
being very like the strawberry. Pliny gave the name of Unedo to 
the fruit of the common Arbutus, because it was so bitter that onhj 
one could he eaten at a time. — French, le fraisier en arbre, arbousier ; 
the fruit, arbouse, arboise, or arboust: Italian, albatro, albaro, 
arbuto, rovo, corbezzolo ; the fruit, corbezzola. 

The Common Arbatus, Ai'butus Unedo^ grows to the 
height of twenty or thirty feet, and bears branches ver}- 
near to the earth ; the leaves, which are very similar to 
those of the bay-tree, remain on all the year, the old ones 
being driven off in the spring by the shooting of new. 
The fruit, which is called Unedo, takes a whole year in 
coming to perfection ; so that in October and November, 
when the tree is adorned with a profusion of rosy blos- 
soms, it is also loaded with ripe fruit from the blossoms 
of the former year. 

The variety with red flowers makes a pretty appear- 
ance, when intermingled with others ; the outside of these 
flowers being on their first appearance of a bright red, 
which, before they fall, turns to purple. The double- 
flowered variety is not so handsome as the single, for it 
has only a double row of petals, and bears but Mttle 
fruit. 

The Common Arbutus is a native of the South of 
Europe, Greece, Palestine, and many parts of Asia ; and 
of the west of Ireland, where, as well as in Spain and 
Italy, the country people eat the fruit. At Padua it is 
sold in the markets ; and in the earlier ages was a common 



16 



SYLVAX SKETCHES. 



article of food. Viroil recommends the vomiff twio-s as a 
food for goats, and celebrates their use m basket-work. 

The Laurel-leaved Arbutus, Arbutus laurifoUa, is a 
native of North America : it is verv Kke the Common 
Arbutus : one of the chief distinctions is in the flowers 
of this turning all the same wav. 

The Oriental Arbutus, Arbutus Andracline^ some- 
times called simply the Andi'achne, is also veiy similar 
to the conmion species : the bark is smoother, and the 
leaves are larger. It grows naturally in the East, parti- 
cularly about Magnesia, where it is so plentiful as to be 
the principal fuel of the inliabitants : it grows to a middle 
size, -with irregular branches ; the blossoms are like those 
of the Common Arbutus, only not so numerous ; the 
fruit, also, is of the same colour and consistence. 

Wheeler observed this tree neai' Athens, and saw the 
fruit sold at the market in Smyrna. 

Evehm complains of the neglect shown to the Arbutus 
in his time: — to the Arbutus, which gi'ows such a 
goodly tree, patient of our chme. unless the weather be 
verv severe : it may be contrived into beautiful pahsades, 
and is ever verdant. I am told this tree gi'ows to a lai'ge 
size on Mount Atlas, and other countries." 

Sibthorpe, travelling in the Isle of Athos, says, in his 
way to the monastery of St. Paul, he passed " tlu'ough 
a beautiful shrubben^ of Kermes oaks, mixed with Ar- 
butus and Anch'achne : those trees, now laden ^vith ripe 
fruit, made a beautiful appearance, and. ^-ixh the smooth 
pohshed bark and sliining laurel leaves of the Andi'achne. 
were highly ornamental*." 

* See Travels in the East^ edited by R. "Walpole^, M. A.^ being a 
continuation of Memoirs relating to European and Asiatic Turkey ; 
Sibthorpe's Journal, page 64-. 



ARBUTUS. 



17 



Franklin, in liis Joumey to the Shores of the Polar 
Sea, speaks of the Ai'butus alpma, of which, he says, 
the fruit was ripe and plenty ; the natives gave it the 
name of magpie-berry ; and the traveller and his com- 
panions made a supper of it*. 

Barthelemv speaks of the height of these trees in 
ascending Momit Ida: — Nous etions irapp6s de la 
grosseur des c^-pres, de la hautem^ des Arbousiers et des 
Andrachnes-h.'' 

" We were struck with the size of the cypress, and 
the height of the Arbutus and Andi^achne trees." 

Mrs. Barbauld speaks of tliis tree as an inhabitant of 
Corsica : 

Thy swelling mountains,, brown with solemn shade 

Of various trees, that wave their giant arms 

O'er the rough sons of freedom j lofty pines. 

And hardy fir, and ilex ever green. 

And spreading chestnut, with each humbler plant 

And shrub of fragrant leaf, that clothes their sides 

With living verdure ; whence the clustering bee 

Extracts her golden dews : the shining box. 

And sweet-leaved myrtle, aromatic thyme, 

The prickly juniper, and the green leaf 

Which feeds the spinning- worm ; while glowing bright 

Beneath the various foliage, wildly spreads 

The arbutus, and rears his scarlet fruit 

Luxuriant, mantling o'er the craggy steeps : 

And thy own native laurel crowns the scene." 

Mrs. Barbauld's Corsica, "\rritten in 1769. 

According to Barthelemv, verv extraordinary powers 

* Pages 380—394. 

t Travels of Anacharsis the Younger, vol. \i. p. 298. 

c 



18 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



have been attributed to the fruit of the trees on Mount 
Helicon, of which the Andi'achne is one : 

" Nous etions alors sur THehcon, sur cette montagne 
si renommee pour la purete de Fak, Tabondance des eaux, 
la fertihte des vallees, la fraicheur des ombrages, et la 
beaute des ai'bres antiques dont elle est couverte. Les 
paysans des environs nous assuraient que les plantes y 
sont tellement salutaires, qu'apres s'en etre nourris, les 
serpents n'ont plus de venin. lis trouvaient une douceur 
exquise dans le fruit de leurs arbres, et surtout dans celui 
de rAndrachne."' 

We were then on Hehcon, on that mountain so re- 
no^raed for the purity of the air, the abundance of the 
waters, the freshness of the shades, and the beauty of 
the old trees with which it is covered. The neighbouring 
peasants assured us, that the plants there are so health- 
ful, that serpents ceased to be venomous after feeding on 
them. They consider the fruit of their trees exquisitely 
sweet, particularly that of the Andrachne." 

If it may be allowed to explain this figuratively, it 
may not be so extravagant a notion as at first it appears : 
we can believe that the productions of the Muses who 
preside over Mount Hehcon should tend to destroy the 
venom of human passions, for — 

Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast :" 

and surely less cannot be said for poetry, of the beauty 
of which music is but a part. 

Sannazaro describes the Arbutus as employed in the 
celebration of the festival in honour of Pales, the goddess 
of the Roman shepherds and pastures : 

— "Si tosto come il sole apparve in oriente, e i vaghi 



ARBUTUS. 



19 



uccelli sopra li verdi rami cantarono, dando segno della 
vicina luce, ciascuna parimente levatosi, comincio adornar 
la sua mandra di rami verdissimi di Quercie, e di Cor- 
bezzoli, ponendo i su la porta una kmga corona di frondi, 
e di fiori di ginestre, e d'altri/' 

— " As soon as the sun appeared in the east, and the 
charming birds began to sing on the green boughs, giving 
sign of approaching day, the shepherds also arose, and 
began to adorn their flocks with green branches of the 
oak, and of the Arbutus ; putting over the door a long 
weath of leaves, of broom-blossoms, and other flowers.'"* 

The Arbutus was found by Dallaway near Miletus : 
he speaks of that part of the country as abounding with 
it ; and adds, that the fruit resembles a scarlet strawberry 
both in size and flavour *. He describes it, too, as grow- 
ing with myrtles and roses at Belgrade, a place described 
by Lady M. W. Montagu as a perfect paradise. " The 
village of Belgrade,^' says Mr. Dallaway, " is embosomed 
on all sides in a thick grove, and is now so much less 
than the paradise described by Lady M. W. Montagu, 
that it is only one of the finest forests in the world. The 
site of her former residence is now shown in a desolated 
fieldf." 

Toumefort tells us that brandy is distilled from the 
fruit of the Arbutus trees, with which the mountains of 
Andros in many parts are covered J. 

* Dallaway's Constantinople, p. 246. f Ibid. p. 146. 
:|: Tournefort's Travels, vol. ii. p. 36. 



C 2 



ASH TREE. 



FRAXINUS. 

OLEINiE. POLYGAMIA DIOECIA. 

The English name Ash, from the Saxon lEsc, is said to have 
been given to this tree from the colour of its bark. — French, Frene ; 
formerly Frai, Fraysse, — Italian, Frassino ; on the Brescia, Uza. 

The common Ash, Fraxinus excelsior^ takes its spe- 
cific name from the loftiness of its trunk : the leaves are 
pinnate, usually composed of five pair of leaflets ; the 
blossoms grow at the sides of the branches, in loose spikes; 
they commonly open in March or April, but in cold sea- 
sons are sometimes as late as May. Toward the end of 
April, or the beginning of May, the leaves come out, 
and fall early in the autumn. 

The fruit of the Ash is like the tongues of some birds, 
therefore they have been called Lingua avis and Lingua 
passeritia by the old apothecaries, who used them in 
medicine, and Ornithogiossum by others. Our country 
people usually call them Ash keyes, but others name 
them Kite keyes. The botanists, from their similarity 
to the Samera of Columella, or the fruit of the elm, de- 
signate them by the name of Samara, and sometimes by 
that of Pterides, from their winged edges. 

A well grown Ash is an elegant object ; the bark is 
smooth and pale coloured; the foliage of a line dark 
green, light and graceful. When the branches are pen- 
dulous, as is frequently the case, more especially with 
trees growing by the water-side, it is termed the Weep- 
ing Ash. 



x\SH TREE. 



21 



The Ash is frequently found in old walls and rocks, 
in the crevices of which it insinuates its roots, and covers 
the surface with verdure. It is supposed that the seeds 
ai'e carried into these crevices by the winds. 

" The Ash asks not a depth of fruitful mould. 
But, like frugality, on little means 
It thrives, and high o'er creviced ruins spreads 
Its ample shade, or in the naked rock. 
That nods in air, with graceful limbs depends." 

Bidlake's Year. 

" Here amid the brook. 

Gray as the stone to which it clung, half root. 
Half trunk, the young Ash rises from the rock. 
And there its parent lifts a lofty head. 
And spreads its graceful boughs ; the passing wind 
With twinkling motion lifts the silent leaves, 
And shakes its rattling tufts." 

Southey's Roderick. 

The oak itself scarcely serves a greater variety of pur- 
poses than does this tree ; its wood is hard and tough, 
and in great request with the coachmaker and wheel- 
Avright; it is cut into pahsades, hop-poles, and tool- 
handles : — " in sum," says Evelyn, " the husbandman 
cannot be without it for his carts, ladders, and other 
tackhng, from the pike to the plow, spear and bow." 

f f Tough-bending Ash 

Gives to the humble swain his useful plough. 
And for the peer his prouder chariot builds." 

DODSLEY. 

Evelyn commends the Ash for fuel : — " it is," says he, 
of all other the sweetest of our forest fueUing, and 
the fittest for ladies' chambers." Ash pollards are rec- 
koned very serviceable v/here fuel is scarce, because the 



22 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



loppings bum well whether green or dry, and make 
excellent fires. The ashes of the wood make good pot- 
ash, and the bark is used for tanning nets and calfskin. 

In the north of Lancashire, when grass is upon the de- 
cline, Ash-trees are lopped as fodder for the cattle. The 
leaves have been used to mix with tea ; and Miller tells 
us that in some places the poor people have made great 
advantage by collecting them. Whether by saving ex- 
pense to themselves in lessening their consumption of 
foreign tea, or whether they were employed to collect these 
leaves for others, is not clear. Common as the use of 
foreign tea now is, even among the poorest of our pea- 
santry, who, notwithstanding the little nourishment it 
affords them, obtain it at a great expense, it is said that 
many persons in China give the preference to our En- 
ghsh herbs for the same purpose ; — such is the disposition 
of mankind to prefer those things least easy of attainment. 

Medicines have been prepared from the leaves, the 
bark, the seeds, and the saw-dust : — " but whether the 
cure be performed by the power of magic or nature," 
says Evelyn, " I determine not." This author tells us 
that " the seeds pickled tender make a delicate salading." 

The Ash has, with some persons, a bad character, as a 
spoiler of butter. It has been observed, that in those 
parts of Surrey where the ash grows abundantly, the 
bistter is rank ; and this fault is supposed to proceed 
from the cows eating the young shoots of the tree. " So 
that in good dairy counties," says Miller, " they will not 
let an Ash-tree grow." Martyn remarks upon this, that 
the Romians recommended the Ash for fodder; — and, 
continues he, I have passed much time in a country 
Vvhere Ash was almost the only tree in the hedge-rows, 
and never observed this rankness in the butter. Cream 



ASH TREE. 



23 



is apt to turn bitter at the fail of the leaf, and the reason 
is supposed to be, that the cattle then pick up decayed 
leaves, particularly those of the Ash ; but it is the same 
in large low pastures where there are no trees, as in up- 
land enclosures which abound in them.'" 

In some respects the Ash is certainly a mischievous 
neighbour: the numerous shoots from the root spread 
so widely abroad near the surface of the earth, that they 
will not permit any thing else to grow near it ; it also 
impoverishes the land, and the drip of its branches is in- 
jurious to grass and corn. It will however grow in the 
most barren soil, and the most exposed situations, and 
^vill bear the beating of the bleak sea-winds, so that it 
is a good tree to plant near the coast, where few trees 
flourish. 

In the early ages, when the island was overrun with 
wood, our ancestors very naturally valued trees rather for 
their fruit than for their timber, and when an oak or a 
beech sold for ten shillings, the Ash, because it furnished 
no food, was valued but at fourpence. 

" The Edda of Woden, however, holds the Ash in 
high veneration, and describes man as being formed from 
it. Hesiod, in like manner, deduces his brazen race of 
men from the Ash*."' 

Evelyn mentions, as some remains of the superstitious 
veneration paid to this tree, that the country people, in 
some parts of England, split young Ashes, and pass dis- 
eased children through the chasm, as a means of curing 
them. They have another custom equally strange; — 
that of boring a hole in an Ash-tree, and imprisoning in 
it a shrewmouse : a few strokes given with a branch of 



* Martyn's Miller. 



24 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



the tree is then considered a sovereign remedy for cramps 
and lameness in cattle, which are ignorantly imagined 
to be caused by that harmless little creature. 

Lightfoot says that, in the Highlands of Scotland, at 
the birth of an infant, the nurse takes a green stick of 
Ash, one end of which she puts into the fire, and, while 
it is burning, receives in a spoon the sap that oozes from 
the other, which she administers to the child as its first 
food. 

Ash-wood is sometimes curiously veined, and is then 
highly valued by the cabinet-makers, who give it the 
name of green ebony. " The woodman who lights upon 
it," says Evelyn, "may make what money he will of it." 
Many persons have told strange stories of the curious 
figures to be found in Ash-wood. It has been said, that 
in the house of a gentleman in Oxfordshire, a dining- 
table, made of an old Ash, represented many figures of 
men, beasts, and fish ; and that in Holland, an Ash, 
being cleft, discovered, in the several slivers, the forms of 
a chalice, a priest's albe, his stole, and several other pon- 
tifical vestments. 

Fancy may play endless vagaries in this way, as it does 
in a burning fire, or in the ever-changing clouds ; twenty 
different observers may form twenty different ideas of the 
same object in such speculations; although it may re- 
quire the aid of a little courtly acquiescence, for one 
person, at the same minute, to see in the same object a 
camel, a weasel, and a whale. 

Ash-trees do not usually grow very large ; but there 
have been many instances of enormous growth among 
them. Miller mentions several : we will notice a few of 
the more remarkable. 

Near Kennety church, in the King's County, is an 



ASH TKEE. 



25 



Ash, the trunk of which is twenty-one feet ten inches 
round, and seventeen feet high before the branches break 
out, which are of enoimous bulk. When a funeral of 
the lower class passes by, thev lay the body down a few 
minutes, say a prayer, and then throw a stone to increase 
the heap which has been accumulating round the roots, 

" At Doniray, neai' Clare Castle, in the county of Gal- 
way, is another that, at fom' feet from the ground, mea- 
sures forty-four feet in girth ; and at six feet high, thirty- 
three feet. The trunk has been long quite hollow, a 
little school having been kept in it : there are very few 
branches remaining, but those few ai'e fresh and A^gorous. 

" Lastly, in the chiuch-yard of Lochaber, in Scotland, 
Dr. Walker measiued a dead Ash, the trunk of which, 
at five feet fi'om the ground, was fifty-eight feet in cir- 
cumference.^ 

" Consider the value^ sir. of such a piece of timber," 

There is an old superstition relative to the Ash-tree, 
that a serpent will rather creep into the fire than over a 
twig of it. This is an old imposture of Phny's,"' says 
Evelyn, " who either took it up upon trust, or we mistake 
the tree." 

Cowley, enmnerating various prodigies, says — 

" On the wild Asii's tops^ the bats and owls^ 
"With all night, ominous, and baleful fowls, 
Sate brooding, while the screeches of these droves 
Profaned and violated all the groves. 
****** 
****** 
But that which gave more wonder than the rest, 
"Within an Ash a serpent built her nest. 
And laid her eggs : when once to come beneath 
The very shadow of an Ash was death : 



26 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Rather^ if chance should force, she through the fire 
From its fallen leaves, so baneful, would retire." 

Cowley on Plants, Book vi. 

This passage is given rather for the allusion than for 
any beauty that is to be found in the poetry. Cowley, 
too, or his translator, gives a fling at Piiny : " For the 
truth hereof, take Pliny's word.'" 

Sannazaro mentions the same notion : 

" Deir ombra di quesf albero sempre fuggono i serpi, 
in modo che se dentro a un cerchio serrato da foglie di 
frassino, sia posto il fuoco, ed un sei-pe ; il serpe per non 
dar nel frassino piu tosto si getta nel fuoco*.'' 

" Serpents always avoid the shade of the Ash ; so that 
if a fire and a serpent be placed within a circle of Ash- 
leaves, the serpent, to avoid the Ash, wdll even run into 
the midst of the fire.'' 

By the heroes of old, the Ash was used for spears, and 
is still in use for pike staves. Pliny says it is preferable 
for that purpose to either the cornel or the myrtle. San- 
nazaro says, also, that it is better than the hazel, lighter 
than the cornel, and more supple than the Service-tree. 

It is recorded that the lance with which Hector was 
killed by Achilles, was of this wood. Sannazaro re- 
marks that the Ash is ennobled by this circumstance : 

" Molto e nobilitato per la lancia d'Achille." 

Rapin also alludes to it : 

But on fair levels and a gentle soil 

The noble Ash rewards the planter's toil ; 

Noble, since great Achilles from her side 

Took the dire spear by which brave Hector died." 

Rapik on Trees. 



* L' Arcadia di M. G. Sannazaro. 



ASH TREE. 



27 



Ovid speaks of it as useful for spears : 

Fraxinus utilis hastis." 

The Ash is poetically termed warlike, from this cir- 
cumstance : 

" The warlike Ash_, that reeks with human blood." 
Garcilasso speaks of this tree in high terms : 

All know that in the woods the Ash reigns queen^ 
In graceful beauty soaring to the sky." 

Spenser designates it as 

The Ash for nothing ill." 

Sir Walter Scott, to express the great strength of 
Bertram, says, 

" Like reeds he snapp'd the tough Ash wood." 

The American Ashes, Fraxuius Americana^ and jim- 
bescenSj serve to increase the varieties in laige planta- 
tions, but thev are considered as inferior in every respect 
to the common Ash. 

There are two other species whicii, on botanical 
grounds, have been made into a new genus, by the fa- 
vourers of the natural system ; and even the later writers 
on the Linnean artilicial system have agreed in this 
separation, although it has also obhged them to place 
this new genus, OrnuSi in the order diandria monogynia, 
at the other extremity of their system. 

The Manna Ash, Fraxinus or Ornus I'otuiidifolki, was 
first cultivated in this country by the Duchess of Beau- 
fort, in 169T. It is of humble grov»-th, seldom exceeding 
fifteen or sixteen feet in height : the flovv-ers are purple, 
and appear in the spring before the leaves. 



28 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



The lower part of the mountains of Calabria abound 
with the Manna Ash, which grows spontaneously : the 
woodman cuts down all the strong stems that grow above 
the thickness of a man''s leg, which is the only care they 
bestow upon it. Towards the end of July, the gatherers 
of the manna make an horizontal gash, inclining up- 
wards, in the bole of the tree. As it never flows the 
first day, another cut is made on the second, and the 
gatherer fixes the stalk of a maple-leaf in the upper 
wound, and the end of the leaf in the lower one, so as to 
form a sort of cup to receive the gum distilling from 
these gashes. The season for gathering the manna con- 
tinues about a month. It is more valued when gathered 
in tubular pieces; to effect which they apply a straw, 
or a small bit of a shrub to the incision, upon which the 
manna runs as it oozes out ^ thus forming regular 
tubes. 

The Flowering Ash, Fraxinus Ornus^ or Ornus Euro- 
pcea, was raised at Enfield, by Dr. Uvedale, early in 
the eighteenth century, from seeds which were brought 
from Italy by Dr. William Sherrard. This is gene- 
rally planted for ornament ; being, in the flowering sea^ 
son, well covered with blossoms, which are conspicuous 
at a considerable distance. This tree also exudes manna, 
but in less quantity than the former. 

The manna thus exuded from the Ash must not be 
confounded with the manna which makes so great a 
figure in the old Hebrew poetry, although it is in some 
respects similar. The Arabian manna, as we have been 
lately informed by that adventurous and intelligent tra- 
veller, Burckhardt, is exuded in June from a species of 
tamarix v*^hich grov/s in the deserts. This species of 
manna is very scarce, and not to be met with but in 



ASH TREE. 



29 



rainy years ; it can also be collected only at early dawn, 
as the heat of the day melts it, and it runs into the 
sand. It is quite solid if kept in a cool place, but melts 
even by the heat of the hand: its taste is sweet and 
aromatic*. 



* Literary Gazette. 



ASPEN. 



POPULUS TREMULA. 

AMENTACE/E. DICECIA OCTANDRIA. 

This tree, called the Trembling Poplar, from the continual qui- 
vering of the leaves, is more commonly known by the name of Asp, 
or Aspen ; derived from the German, Espe ; which, in its original, 
signifies a Poplar of any kind. — French, la Tremble. — Italian, la 
Tremola, Alberella, Alberetto. 

The Aspen is a native of many parts of Europe, in 
moist woods and marshes : in the little islands of the 
Lake of Cachemire, too, it is said to grow abundantly. 
It has a smooth green bark ; the leaves are nearly heart- 
shaped, and being very white on the under side, have a 
good effect when blown about by the wind, and con- 
trasted with trees of darker fohage. 

The trembling of the Aspen leaf is proverbial: by 
some, it is supposed to proceed from the leaf-stalks being 
flattened at the end; but that is common to other poplars, 
whose leaves are not so restless. Dr. Stokes ascribes it 
to the plane of the long leaf-stalk being at right angles 
with that of the leaf ; thus allowing a freer motion than 
they could have had if the planes had been parallel. 
Dr. Aikin attributes it to the length and slenderness of 
the leaf-stalks ; but the Highlanders set the question at 
rest at once ; they believe that the cross of Christ was 
made of this tree, and that therefore the tree can never 
rest. They can scarcely be conscience-stricken, for the 
cross could not have been made of the leaves; perhaps 



ASPEN. 



31 



they struggle to escape from the wicked wood on which 
they grow. 

The tree is of speedy growth, but impoverishes the 
land, and destroys the grass in its immediate neighbour- 
hood. The wood is hght, smooth, soft, and durable in 
the air. It is used for hoops, milk-pails, clogs, pack- 
saddles, &c., and for fire- wood. Spenser calls it, " the 
Aspen good for staves." The bark is the favourite food 
of beavers. In some countries the bark of the younger 
trees serves for torch-wood. Evelyn, comparing this 
tree with the Black Poplar, says, it " thrusts down a 
more searching foot, and in this, likewise, differs, that 
he takes it ill to have his head cut off.'^ 

It has been maliciously affirmed that of the leaves of 
the Aspen were made women's tongues, " which seldom 
cease wagging*." 

Sir Walter Scott describes its appearance in comparing 
it to a countenance of varying expression : 

" With every change his features played. 
As Aspens show the light and shade." 

Again, speaking of superstition, he says, 

" Hearts firm as steel, as marble hard, 
'Gainst faith, and love, and pity barred. 
Have quaked like Aspen leaves in May, 
Beneath its universal sway." 

Spenser compares it to a person under the influence of 
fear : 

— " His hand did quake. 

And tremble like a leaf of Aspen green." 



* See Gerarde's Herbal. 



3^ 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



The lightest breeze, though it stir no other leaf of the 
forest, will set the Aspen tree in busy motion : 

" And the wind, full of wantonness, woos like a lover 
The young Aspen trees, till they tremble all over." 

T, Moore. 

Thomson says, in describing 

" A perfect calm ; that not a breath 

Is heard to quiver through the closing woods. 
Or rustling turn the many-twinkling leaves 
Of Aspen tall." 

It may one day be discovered by some poetic wood- 
man that the Aspen was formerly a beautiful, or an un- 
fortunate nymph ; perhaps the most timid of the sisters 
of Phaeton ; for trees of such origin are, it is said, apt to 
tremble when any one approaches them. 

Long time they thus together travelled. 

Till, weary of their way, they came at last 
Where grew two goodly trees, that fair did spred 

Their arms abroad, with gray moss overcast ; 
And their green leaves, trembling with every blast. 

Made a calm shadow far in compass round : 
The fearful shepherd often there aghast 

Under them never sate, ne wont there sound 
His merry oten pipe, but shunn'd the unlucky ground. 

^' But this good knight, soon as he them 'gan spy. 
For the cool shade him thither hast'ly got ; 
For golden Phoebus now, that mounted high. 

From fiery wheels of his fair chariot 
Hurled his beam, so scorching cruel hot. 
That living creature mote it not abide ; 
And his new lady it endured not. 

There they alight, in hope themselves to hide 
From the fierce heat, and rest their weary limbs a tide 



ASPEN. 



33 



Fair seemly pleasaunce each to other makes^ 

With goodly purposes there as they sit ; 
And in his falsed fancy he her takes 

To be the fairest wight that lived yet ; 
Which to express he bends his gentle wit. 

And thinking of those branches green to frame 
A garland for her dainty forehead fit, 

He plucked a bough ; out of whose rift there came 
Small drops of gory blood, that trickled down the same, 

" Therewith a piteous yelling voice was heard, 
Crying, ' O spare with guilty hands to tear 
My tender sides, in this rough rind embard ; 

But fly, ah fly far hence away, for fear 
Lest to you hap that happened to me here, 

And to this wretched lady, my dear love ; 
O too dear love, love bought with death too dear !' 
Aston'd he stood, and up his hair did hove, 
And with that sudden horror could no member move. 

" At last, when as the dreadful passion 

Was overpast, and manhood well awake. 
Yet musing at the strange occasion. 

And doubting much his sense, he thus bespake ; 
' What voice of damned ghost from Limbo lake. 

Or guileful spright, wand'ring in empty air. 
Both which frail men do oftentimes mistake, 

Sends to my doubtful ears these speeches rare. 
And rueful plaints, me bidding guiltless blood to spare ?' 

Then, groaning deep : — ' Nor damned ghost,' quoth he, 

* Nor guileful spright to thee these words doth speak ; 
But once a man, Fradubio — now a tree : 

Wretched man ! wretched tree ! whose nature weak, 
A cruel witch, her cursed will to wreak. 

Hath thus transform'd, and placed in open plains, 
^Vliere Boreas doth blow full bitter bleak. 

And scorching sun does dry my secret veins ; 
For though a tree I seem, yet cold and heat rne pains. ' " 

D 



34 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Should the reader desire to be further acquainted with 
the mournful adventures of these sylvan lovers, let him 
turn to the second canto of the first book of Spenser'^s 

Faerie Queene.'' 



BARBERRY BUSH. 



BERBERIS. 

BERBEEIDE.E. HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 

Barberry, Berberry, or Pipperidge-bush. Berberis is said to be 
the Arabic name. French, epine vinette ; Italian, crespino. 

The Common BarbeiTy, Berber-is vulgaris^ is a shrub 
eight or ten feet in height ; the stems are upright and 
branched; both stems and branches being armed with 
sharp thorns, which commonly grow by threes. Linnaeus 
affirms that the first leaves of the present year change into 
thorns the next ; but other botanists differ from him in 
this opinion. The flowers grow in pendulous racemes 
towards the end of the branches ; they are yellow, with 
orange-coloured dots at their base. The berry is green 
when first formed ; when ripe, of a bright red. 

This fruit is made into jelhes and other preserves, and 
an essential salt is obtained from them : they are some- 
times pickled. Their acidity is unpleasant to birds ; but 
insects of various kinds are remarkably fond of them. 
The leaf has an agreeable acid taste, and is a pleasant 
ingredient in salads. 

Though pleasant at a short distance, the flowers when 
near have an offensive odour ; therefore, these shrubs are 
seldom planted many together, or very near to walks 
which are much frequented. There is a heavy charge 
against this shrub ; — that it will not suffer corn to thrive 
near it : it is said, the ears will not fill, and that this in- 
fluence extends to a distance of three or four hundred 

D 2 



36 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



jrards. This is ascribed to the aptness of the Barberry 
to afford a lodgment for the growth of a small species of 
mildew fungus, which, according to Sir Joseph Banks 
and others, may be transferred to the corn ; but this is 
certainly an erroneous notion, for the two plants are of 
very different structure, and of different genera ; the one 
being the RcEstelia berberidis, and the other the Ustilago 
segetum, of Gray's " Natural Arrangement of British 
Plants." Some who say they have made experiments are 
convinced of the truth of this observation; others are 
incredulous; and a third party, in their zeal against 
modern innovations, as they term them, although totally 
ignorant of the subject, are ready to exclaim, " Mallem 
cum Banksio vel Smithio errare quam cum ahis recte 
sentire — " I had rather be in the wrong along with 
Banks or Smith than in the right with their opponents."" 

The Barberry is a native of most parts of Europe, in 
woods, coppices, and hedges. In England, it is found 
chiefly in a chalky soil. The flowers appear in May, and 
the berries ripen in September. 

The other species are mostly of lower growth than the 
Common Barberry : the box-leaved kind is rather tender 
while young. The wood of the holly-leaved Barberry, 
Berberis ilicifdtia, is, on account of its great elasticity, 
used by the inhabitants of Terra del Fuego for bows. 

This plant most admirably illustrates the irritabihty 
that some vegetables are possessed of, and which may al- 
most be said to come near to voluntary motion of animals ; 
for if the base of the tliread which supports the anther 
be irritated by a straw, by an electric shock, or by the 
focus of a burning glass, the anther mil be raised up by 
a sudden jerk, so as to touch the end of the style in the 
centre of the flower ; this effect appears to take place 



BARBERRY BUSH. 



37 



naturally by the irritation produced by flies and other 
9 insects coming to get the honey which is secreted by two 
oblong glands, placed at the base of each of the threads, 
or filaments of the stamen. Nearly the same fact is ex- 
hibited by the common stinging-nettle ; and this last is 
still more easily procured for trial. 



BEECH TREE. 



FAGUS SYLVATICUS. 

AMENTACE^. MONCECIA POLYANDRIA. 

Fagus is from the Greeks and signifies to eat ; the nuts of the 
Beech having been a common article of food in the early ages. 

French, betre^, hetre ; Italian, faggio. ^ 

The Beech sometimes grows to an enormous size ; and 
in its usual growth, is a fine, lofty and spreading tree : 

" The Beech that scales the welkin with his top." 

The trunk is straight, and covered with a whitish bark ; 
the leaves are about three inches long, and nearly as wide ; 
smooth and glossy ; they remain on the tree until driven 
off by the shooting of new ones in the spring. The 
fruit is composed of two nuts joined at the base, and 
covered with an almost globular involucre, which has soft 
spines on the outside ; but within, is delicately smooth 
and silky : 

" The Beech, of oily nuts 

Prolific." 

The Beech is a Briton, and a native of most of the 
countries of Europe ; but not in very high or cold situa- 
tions. It does not thrive well in light lands, and of all 
exposures, least Hkes the west : it grows well in a rocky, 
chalky soil. In some parts of Hertfordshire, where the 
soil is a strong clay full of flints, it grows very large and 
beautiful. In the course of the last century, large planta- 
tions of Beech have been made both in England and 
Scotland. 



BEECH TREE. 



39 



Mr. White speaks of the Beech as one of the most 
grand and lovely of all the forest-trees : — " Whether we 
consider its stately trunk,"' said he, " its smooth, silvery 
rind, its glossy fohage, or its graceful, spreading, and 
pendulous boughs.'" 

It is considered as a handsome tree to stand alone, on 
account of the regidar growth of its branches. Gilpin 
says it is not picturesque ; and in landscape, perhaps, it 
is less so than many. To appreciate the beauty of the 
Beech, we should walk in a wood of them ; they continue 
green as long as any of the deciduous trees, and a young 
Beech has a sunny green that seems almost to contain its 
own light ; it looks as if it were independent of sunshine, 
and would preserve its colour in the deepest darkness of 
midnight. In winter, the leaves become brovm or orange- 
coloured; and it has been observed, that some of the 
finest oppositions of tint have been produced by the union 
of this tree with the oak at that season. Its smooth, gray 
bark, too, is usually scattered with mosses and hchens of 
various hues, which form beautiful contrasts. 

Beech-wood is used for purposes innumerable ; among 
others, for the sounding-boards of musical instruments : 

The soft Beech 

And close-grained Box employ the turner's wheel ; 

And with a thousand implements supply 

Mechanic skill." Dodsley. 

In some places, the leaves are used instead of straw, 
for mattresses. The nuts, or mast, are greedily devoured 
by mice, birds, and squirrels ; they are said, when fresh, 
to occasion giddiness and headach ; but when dried and 
powdered, to make wholesome bread. Roasted, they 
have been substituted for coffee. In Siberia, the poor use 



40 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



the expressed oil instead of butter. In northern coun- 
tries, however, they do not yield much oil; Linnaeus 
informs us, scarcely any, in Sweden. 

It is certain that Henry Fielding, the author of those 
exact pictures of EngHsh society in the begimiing of the 
last century, " Tom Jones"*' and " Joseph Andrews,'" once 
speculated largely on the manufacture of beech oil : and 
the expression of it by a joint stock company was also 
one of the bubbles, as they are emphatically and justly 
called, of the South Sea year, or 17^1. It is said that 
a project was once formed for paying off the national debt 
with the oil of beech nuts. 

The wood, the leaves, the bark, the ashes, — every part 
of this tree is useful. Cowley rather quaintly enumerates 
some of its uses in housewifery : 

" Hence in the world's best years, the humble shed 
Was happily and fully furnished ; 

Beech made their chests, their beds^ and their join'd-stools; 
Beech made the board, the platters, and the bowls." 

Beechen bowls are often mentioned in ancient pastorals, 
and appear to have been much prized by the shepherds ; 
but that was in the golden age : 

' — — Nec bella fuemnt, 
Faginus adstabat cum scyphus ante dapes." 

TiBULLUS. 

— ^' No wars did men molest. 

When only beechen bowls were in request/' 

In VirgiFs third Eclogue, the two shepherds, Menalcas 
and Damsetas, boast of their beechen bowls wrought by 
the hand of Alcimedon. 

Milton, speaking of poets, says that the writers of 
elegy may be allov/ed wine and good cheer, but that 



BEECH TREE. 



41 



such as treat of heroes and of gods must live more fru- 
gally : 

" Let herbs to them a bloodless banquet give^ 
In beechen goblets let their bev'rage shine^ 
Cool from the crystal spring their sober wine." 

Milton. 

The Beech has been particularly celebrated for its 
shade : 

" Tityre, tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi 
Sylvestrem tenui Musam meditaris avena." 

Eclogue i. 

" Beneath the shade which beechen boughs diffuse, 
YoUj Tityrusj entertain your sylvan muse." 

It seems to have had the honour of shading the sylvan 
god himself. In the Faithful Shepherdess, the satyr who 
brings fruit to Clorin says — 

" Till when humbly leave I take. 
Lest the great Pan do awake. 
That sleeping lies in a deep glade. 
Under a broad Beech's shade." 

Beaumont and Fletcher. 

" There, at the foot of yonder nodding Beech 
That rears its old fantastic roots so high, 
His listless length at noontide would he stretch, 
And pore upon the brook that bubbles by." 

Gray. 

Garcilasso has some delightful lines upon this subject : 

The sun, from rosy billows risen, had rayed 
With gold the mountain tops, when at the foot 
Of a tall Beech romantic, whose green shade 
Fell on a brook, that, sweet-voiced as a lute. 
Through lively pastures wound its sparkling way. 
Sad on the daisied turf Salicio lay : 
And with a voice in concord to the sound 



43 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Of all the many winds and waters round. 

As o'er the mossy stones they swiftly stole^, 

Poured forth in melancholy song his soul 

Of sorrow ; with a fall 

So sweet, and aye so wildly musical. 

None could have thought that she, whose seeming guile 

Had caused his anguish, absent was the while. 

But that in very deed the unhappy youth 

Did, face to face, upbraid her questioned truth." 

Wiffen's Garcilasso. 
" Under the branches of this Beech we flung 
Our limbs at ease, and our bent bows unstrung. 
Thus idly lying, we inspired with zest 
The sweet fresh spirit breathing from the west. 
The flowers with which the mosses were inlaid 
A rich diversity of hues displayed. 
And yielded scents as various ; in the sun. 
Lucid as glass, tliis clear shrill fountain shone. 
Revealing in its depth the sands like gold. 
And smooth white pebbles whence its waters rolled." 

The same. 

" I ran to meet you, as the traveller 
Gets from the sun under a shady Beech." 

Hunt, from Theocritus. 

The Beech has been celebrated more, perhaps, than 
any other tree, as the lover's tablet. Shepherds, in old 
times, carved the stories of their loves, their songs, their 
mistresses' names, and their tender lamentations, on the 
bark of the hving tree, or on strips of bark, "vvhich served 
them for paper : 

" Immo hffic in viridi nuper quae cortice fagi 
Carmina descripsi, et modulans alterna notavi, 
Experiar." Virgil, Eclogue v. 

Or shall I rather the sad verse repeat, 

Which on the Beech's bark I lately writ ; 

I writ, and sang betwixt }" Dryden's Translation. 



BEECH TREE. 



43 



They had a superstitious notion that with the words, 
which increased in size with the growth of the tree, their 
hopes would grow in proportion : 

" tenerisque meos incidere araores 

Arboribus ; crescent illae, crescetis amores." 

Virgil, Eclogiie x. 

" The rind of every plant her name shall know. 
And as the rind extends the love shall grow." 

At length, a tender calm 

Hushed by degrees the tumult of her soul ; 

And on the spreading Beech, that o'er the stream 

Incumbent hung, she with the sylvan pen 

Of rural lovers this confession carved, 

Which soon her Damon kissed \vith weeping joy." 

Thomson. 

" Mentre Ergasto canto la pietosa canzone, Fronimo, 
sopra tutti i pastori ingegnosissimo, la scrisse in una verde 
corteccia di Faggio, e quella di moke ghirlande investita 
appico ad un albero, che sopra la bianca sepoltura stende- 
vasi rami suoi.'' — Arcadia di Sannazaro, Prosa 6. 

" While Ergasto sung this mournful song, Fronimo, 
the most ingenious of all the shepherds, wrote it upon a 
piece of green Beech-bark, and adorning it with garlands, 
hung it upon a tree that stretched its boughs over the 
white sepulchre.'' 

Not a Beech but bears some cipher. 

Tender word, or amorous text ; 
If one vale sounds Angelina, 

Angelina sounds the next." 

Dox Luis de Gongora. 

The meanest of our peasantry would be ill pleased in 
the present age to feed on Beech-nuts ; but formerly they 



44 



SYLVAN SKETCHES 



were the food of man, as also were acorns. Hence it has 
been aptly tenned — 

" The foodful Beech." 

Evelyn mentions a Roman consul, Passienus Crispus, 
" who fell in love with a prodigious Beech, of a wonderful 
age and stature, which he used to sleep under, and would 
sometimes refresh it by pouring wine at the roots." 

Wordsworth gives an agreeable picture of a Beech- 
tree : 

" A single Beech-tree grew 

Within this grove of firs^ and in the fork 
Of that one Beech appeared a thrush's nest ; 
A last year's nest, conspicuously built 
At such small elevation from the ground^ 
As gave sure sign that they who in that house 
Of nature and of love had made their home. 
Amid the fir-trees all the summer long 
Dwelt in a tranquil spot." 

The abundance of coal in this country renders us 
indifferent to the characters of wood as fuel ; but on the 
continent, beech wood is preferred before all others for 
chamber fires, as it kindles easily, and gives a clear lively 
fire. The bois d'Andelle burnt in the genteelest houses 
in Paris is almost entirely beech. 



BIRCH TREE. 



BETULA. 

BETULIDE^. MONCECIA TETRANDRIA, 

French, bouleau ; Italian, maio, raaiella, betula, or betuUa. The 
latter name is common also to the Spanish and Portuguese. 

The Birch, Betida alha^ is a native of Asia, chiefly in 
mountainous situations ; and of Europe, from Lapland 
to the subalpine parts of Italy, so that it is no stranger 
to this country. This tree may be immediately distin- 
guished by its bark, which is of a silver colour, or some- 
times approaching to a flesh colour ; by the airy appear- 
ance of its small leaves, in summer, and in winter by the 
elegant drooping of its bare boughs. There are few trees 
so ornamental in a leafless state as the Birch-tree, which 
some have compared to an elegant woman, from the 
peculiar grace of its appearance. Mr. Coleridge terms 
it the 

" most beautiful 

Of forest teees_, the Lady of the woods." 

Keats speaks of 

" the silvery stems 

Of delicate Birch-trees." 

,It is happily described by Wilson, in his Isle of 
Palms, &c. : 

on the green slope 

Of a romantic glade we sat us down. 

Amid the fragrance of the yellow broom , 

While o'er our heads the weeping Birch-tree streamed 

Its branches, arching like a fountain shower." 



46 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Evelyn denominates the Birch wood the very worst of 
timber ; yet it is useful for many purposes. " It claims 
a memory too,'^ says he, " for arrows, bolt-shafts (our 
old English artillery) ; also for bowls, dishes, ladles, and 
other domestic utensils, in the good old days of more 
simplicity, yet of better and truer hospitality/' 

Spenser calls it " the Birch for shafts."' 

The natives of New England make canoes and many 
other articles of Birch wood, which they join very 
curiously with a sort of thread made of cedar roots. 
Martyn says, "they make pinnaces of Birch, ribbing 
them with white cedar, and, covering them with Birch 
bark, sew them with thread of spruce roots, and pitch 
them ; as it seems we did even here in Britain.'" 

In Lancashire a great number of besoms are made of 
Birch twigs, for exportation. The bark will dye yellow, 
and is used to fix fugacious colours. The Highlanders 
of Scotland use it for tanning leather ; and the outer rind 
they burn instead of candles. It is used for tanning in 
Norway also ; and with it the Norwegian fisherman dyes 
his nets and sails of a deep red colour, which is said to 
render them more durable. Small fragments of the bark 
are braided by the Laplanders into shoes and baskets, 
and they use large and thick pieces, by way of surtout, 
to keep off rain ; making a hole in the middle to admit 
the neck. The Swedes frequently make the inner sole 
of their shoes of a piece of Birch-bark, which is said to 
be preferable to leather for that purpose, its oily nature 
so v/ell resisting wet. 

There is no part of this tree but is useful, but the bark 
appears to be the most valuable part of it. Before the 
invention of paper, the epidermis, and the inner wliite 



BIRCH TREE. 



47 



cuticle, were used as writing tablets. Mr. Coleridge 
describes — 

" A curious picture, with a master s haste 
Sketched on a strip of pinky-silver skin 
Peeled from the birchen bark !" 

The Kamschatkadales make hats and drinking-cups 
of Birch-bark. The Russians, Poles, Norwegians, and 
Swedes, cover the roofs of their houses with it. Some- 
times the bark is the outward covering ; sometimes it is 
covered with turf three or four inches thick ; these roofs 
are considered very durable, and even though the water 
should penetrate the turf, it is thro^\Ti off by the bark. 
The Swedes sometimes cover the bark with a thatch 
thickly scattered ^viih grass-seeds, which produce a plen- 
tiful crop ; and these roofs have a very pleasing appear- 
ance. Mr. Brooke says, that he has seen fir-trees of 
tolerable size growing on the roofs of these cottages. 

To the northern peasant the Birch is indeed of the 
utmost importance — almost indispensable : he uses it not 
only in building, but for many articles of household 
furniture. It furnishes him also with fuel ; and, in 
times of scarcity, £ven with food. The Swedes are often 
reduced to hard and scanty fare, or rather they seldom 
have any other, and the inner bark of the Birch, or fir- 
tree, is dried, ground, and made into bread, sometimes 
mixed with corn, sometimes alone. The peasants of 
Norway and Lapland also eat of this bark bread. Dr. 
Clarke, in speaking of a family of Laplanders, says, " The 
bread of the family was full of chaff and the bark of the 
Birch, and it was only when stewed in butter that we 
were able to swallow it, and even then with difficulty *. 



* Dr. Clarke's Travels, vol. iii. p. 442. 



48 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



A T^ine is made from the sap of the Bh'ch-tree. from 
which a spmt is extracted. The notable English liouse- 
wife was formerly skilled in making Birch wine : 

And though she boasts no charms divine^, 
Yet she can carve^ and make Birch wine/' 

T. Wartox. 

even afflictive Birch^ 

Cm-sed by unlettered idle youth^ distils 
A Hmpid current from her wounded bark^ 
Profuse of nursing sap." 

Thus it appears that the Birch-tree supplies to the 
northern peasant his house ; his bread, his wine, and the 
vessels to put them in ; and some part of his clothing ; 
the seeds too ai'e the food of the ptarmigan, upon wliich, 
in a great measure, he subsists; and the leaves some- 
times furnish his bed. From the Birch, also, is prepared 
the j\Ioxa, v/hich he considers an efficacious remedy in 
all painful diseases. 

Even its leaves," says Tvlr. Drunmiond, " are not 
unimportant, being empioved bv the Finland women in 
forming a soft elastic couch for the cradle of infancv. 
Acerbi has given a specimen of a wild lullabv song in 
which tliis is alluded to, and which seems to have been 
copied in these lines of Leyden : 

" Sweet bird of the meadow,, soft be thy rest ! 

Thy mother will wake thee at morn from thy nest ; 
She has made a soft nest^, little red-breast, for thee. 
Of the leaves of the Birch, and the moss of the tree*." 

Birch-wood is thought to make the best charcoal, and 
its soot is a good lamp-black for printers' ink. The 
leaves are good fodder for horses, kine, sheep, and goats ; 



* Drummond's First Steps to Botany, p. 328. 



BIRCH TREE. 



49 



and the seeds are the favourite food of the Siskin, or 
Averdevine. 

The Birch delights in a moist soil, but is not confined 
to the water-side. Cowley is severe upon this gentle 
and amiable-looking tree, for its proneness to revenge, 
and to punish petty crimes, to the great terror of boys 
at school. The same allusion is made by Shenstone, in his 
Schoolmistress : 

" And all in sight doth rise a Birchen tree, 

Which Learning, near her little dome, did stowe ; 
Whilom a twig of small regard to see, 
Though now so wide its waving branches flow. 
And work the simple vassals mickle woe ; 

For not a wind might curl the leaves that blew 
But their limbs shuddered, and their pulse beat low ; 

And as they looked they found their horror grow. 
And shaped it into rods, and tingled at the view." 

He represents the dame, too, as wielding in her hand, 
for a sceptre, 

" tway Birchen sprays." 

It is said that some Birch-trees are so curiously veined 
as to represent birds, beasts, trees, &c. — "to say no- 
thing," says Evelyn, " of the magisterial fasces, for 
which, anciently, the cudgels were used by the lictors for 
hghter faults, as now the gentler rod by our tyrannical 
pedagogues.'''' 

The pensive drooping of the branches of this tree har- 
monizes well with the plaintive tones usually considered 
as the residence of the nightingale : 

" And to yon bower of Birch 
I '11 meanwhile pass, in search 
Of the sweet nightingale's secreted nest ; 

E 



50 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



And beautiful Gravina^ it shall be 

Thine for one rosy kiss — I know the ivied tree." 

Wiffen's Garcilasso. 

Mr. Brooke remarks that it is curious, in travelling 
northward, to observe the gradual diminution in the size 
of the Birch-tree, " till from a tree, it assumes, in the 
higher latitudes, the appearance of a dwarf shrub, seldom 
rising higher than a few feet above it*." 

The Birch, nevertheless, bears a degree of cold in 
which few other trees will grow : that and the fir tree 
are among the most hardy, — and happy is it for the 
peasants of Sweden, Norway, &c., that they are so. 
Browne justly terms this tree 

" The cold-place loving Birch." 

The Canada Birch, Betula lenta, will grow sixty feet 
high or more. A liquor flows from it, when wounded, 
which is drunk in Kamtschatka without fermentation : 
with the wood they build sledges and canoes, and con- 
vert the bark into food by stripping it off when green, 
cutting it into long narrow pieces, drying it, and stewing 
it with their caviar. 

Very pretty baskets are made of the twigs ; the bark 
serves to write upon, and may be made into books. 

The Black Virginian Birch, Betula nigra, is as large of 
growth as the Canada species. 

* Brooke's Sweden^, p. 56. 



BIRD CHERRY. 



PRUNUS. 

AMYGDALE^. ICOSANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 

Also Fowl-Cherry, Cluster-Cherry ; in Scotland Hagberry. 

The Common Bird Cherry, Prunus padus, is a Briton, 
and also a native of the greater part of Europe, and even 
of the severe climate of Siberia. It will thrive either in 
woods, groves, or fields, hills or dales, provided the soil 
be not moist ; and it is very frequently planted in orna^ 
mental grounds. It grows about twelve feet high, and 
is well clothed with leaves : the blossom is not so hand- 
some as that of the Common or Wild Cherry, being 
much smaller; the scent is very strong, and, to many 
persons, unpleasant. The fruit changes from green to 
red ; and, when ripe, to black. The fresh berries are con- 
sidered nauseous, but being bruised and infused in wine 
or brandy, they give it an agreeable flavour. The in- 
fusion in brandy is frequently drunk in Scotland. Dr. 
Clarke says the Swedes flavour their distilled spirits with 
the blossoms. The birds take great delight in these 
berries ; and the name of Bird-cherry was probably 
given to this fruit because seldom eaten but by birds. 

The wood, being smooth and tough, is made into knife 
and whip handles ; it is used also in cabinet-work. 

The Red Bird-Cherry, or Cornish Cherry, Prunus 
rubra, grows twice the height of the former ; the fruit is 
larger, and red when ripe. 

The American Bird-cherry, Prunus serotina, is a 

E g 



52 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



native of Virginia. This tree is thirty feet high ; the 
fruit is larger than the preceding, and is black when 
ripe ; but it has scarcely time to ripen before it is de- 
voured by birds. 

The wood is beautifully veined with black and white ; 
and, as it takes a fine polish, is frequently used in cabinet- 
work. Parkinson calls this tree the Virginia Cherry- 
Bay. It was cultivated here in 1629- 

The Evergreen Bird-cherry, Primus Caroliniana, as 
the English name implies, retains its verdure all the year. 
In this country it seldom exceeds three feet in height, 
but sends out branches on every side : the leaves are of 
a fine lucid green. This species w as brought from South 
Carolina, under the title of Bastard Mahogany ; so called 
from the colour of its wood. It was cultivated by Miller 
in 1759. 

The Perfumed Bird-cherry, Primus Mahaleh^ has a 
fine veined wood ; which, as the tree grows in great abun- 
dance about the village of St. Lucie in Lorrain, the inJia- 
bitants have been induced to use in turnery, and their 
manufactures supply in France tlie place of our Tun- 
bridge ware. It is called St. Lucia wood, whence it has 
been supposed to be a Vilest Indian wood ; the name St. 
Lucie being confounded with that of one of the isles. 
The fresh w^ood having a fine scent, which it communi- 
cates to warm water, the foreign barbers use an infusion 
of it to make the lather for shaving. 



BOXTHORN. 



LYCIUM. 

SOLANE^. PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 

French, Liciet; Italian, Licio. 

The European Boxthorn, Lyc'ium EuropcBum, is a 
native of the South of Europe ; it grows about ten feet 
high; the flowers are of a dull purple; the leaves are 
spear-shaped, and the berries dark red. Kay found it 
about Montpelier, flowering both in March and autumn. 

Clusius says, the Spaniards eat the young shoots with 
oil and vinegar. 

In Tuscany, this shrub is used for hedges, and is 
generally known by the name of Spina di Crucifisso, 
being one of the many thorny shrubs supposed to have 
afforded the crowni of thorns which was put upon the 
head of Christ before the crucifixion. Some pains, how- 
ever, have been taken to show that the crown was used 
in mere derision, and not with an intention to inflict 
bodily pain. The plant now called Christ's Thorn is 
an unarmed species of Rhamnus. 

The Tartarian Boxthorn, Lycium Tataricum^ has an 
elegant appearance on account of the whiteness of the 
branches ; it is armed with awl-shaped spines, surrounded 
at their base with leaves and flowers. The flower is 
white, with a purple border, and is succeeded by a black 
and succulent berry, about the size of a currant. 



BLADDER-NUT TREE. 



STAPHYLEA. 

CELASTRINiE. PENTANDRIA TRIGYNIA. 

Staph^ea, from its bladder-like seed-vessels. In French^ Ba- 

guenandes a pateniostres, from the friars using the seeds to make 
their beads of ; by tlie Italians, pistacia salnisticke ; and by our 
own country people, St. Antony's Nut, Wild Pistacia, or Bladder- 
nuts, from the form of the case which covers the seeds. 

The Common Bladder-Nut Tree, Staphyloea pinnata, 
is a small low tree, somewhat like an elder, which is 
found in hedges, especially in the North of England ; 
but there is some doubt if it was originally a native ; 
and it has apparently been introduced from Asia Minor, 
Italy, or France, in all which countries it is not uncommon. 

The wood of this tree is very hard and white; but 
the plant is most remarkable for its fruit, which consists 
of two or three bladders, like the calyces of the winter 
cherries, only of a pale green colour, which are joined 
together on a stem ; each containing one or two very 
hard seeds, about the size of a small hazel-nut, covered 
with a woody, as it were, varnished coat of a reddish 
colour, and containing a greenish kernel, which is at first 
sweet to the taste, but at length becomes nauseous, and 
often provokes sickness. 

The chief use of this tree, which appears to be the 
Stophylodeiidron of Pliny, is to form hedges, for which 
purpose it answers very well, and makes a very pleasing 



BLADDER-NUT TREE. 



55 



variety, on account of its peculiar and very showy fruit, 
which remains on the tree for a considerable time. This 
fruit is now nearly useless, being no longer required for 
the purposes whence it obtained a name. 



BRAMBLE. 



RUBUS. 

POTENTILLEJE. ICOSANDRIA POLYGYNIA. 

Rubus, from the redness of the twigs, or of the juice of the 
fruit. i^re72 c/t, ronce ; Italian, rogo. 

The Common Bramble, Ruhus Jruticosus, so well 
known in our hedges, by every child in the country, as 
the mother of the blackberry, is sometimes found very 
useful to defend whitethorn or other hedges from sheep, 
cattle, &c. The green twigs yield a black dye; and, 
where mulberry-leaves are not to be had, these are often 
substituted as a food for silkAvorms. The berries, in 
addition to their common name of blackberry, are, in 
some places, called bumblekites ; in others scaldberries, 
from their supposed quality of giving scald-heads to 
children who eat profusely of them. 

Cowper used to feed upon them, as he tells us, when 
he played truant from school: 

For I have loved the rural walk through lanes 

Of grassy swarth, close cropp'd by nibbling^sheep. 

And skirted thick with intertexture firm 

Of thorny boughs ; have loved the rural walk 

O 'er hills, through valleys, and by rivers' brink, 

E'er since a truant boy I passed my bounds. 

To enjoy a ramble on the banks of Thames : 

And still remember, nor without regret. 

Of hours that sorrow since has much endeared. 

How oft, my slice of pocket-store consumed. 

Still hungering, pennyless and far from home. 



BRAMBLE. 



57 



I fed on scarlet hips and stony haws. 
Or blushing crabs, or berries that emboss 
The Bramble, black as jet, or sloes austere.-^ 
Hard fare ! but such as boyish appetite 
Disdains not ; nor the palate, undepraved 
By culinary arts, unsavoury deems." 

The double-flowered variety of the Bramble makes a 
good figure in ornamental plantations. 

To this genus belongs another very ornamental shrub^ 
the Virginian Flowering Raspberry, Rubus odoratus : it 
does not ripen its fruit here, but is esteemed for the 
beauty of the blossoms, which it produces plentifully, 
and in constant succession throughout the summer, and 
for the large and elegantly formed leaves, which also are 
dehghtfully fragrant. 

Linnaeus mentions a Bramble, called the Arctic, or 
the Dwarf Crimson Bramble, Ruhus Arcticus, of which 
the fruit is nearly as large as a mulberry ; purple, fra^ 
grant, and very pleasant. He speaks of it with gratitude, 
as he says, for the benefit he received from it in his 
Lapland journey ; the vinous nectar of its berries having 
often recruited his spirits when he was almost sinking 
with hunger and fatigue. He tells us these are more 
highly valued than any other of the Swedish wild berries, 
and that, in the province of Norland, the principal families 
make a jelly, a syrup, and a wine from them ; part of 
which they consume themselves, and send a part to their 
friends in Stockholm, as a dainty of the finest and rarest 
kind. 

Dr. Clarke says, " the flavour of its berries is finer than 
that of the hautboy strawberry, which perhaps it more 
resembles than any other kind of fruit. These berries 
are of a dark red colour, equal in size to those of our 
common raspberry trees ; but the plant is so diminutive, 



58 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



that an entire tree, with all its branches, leaves, and fruit, 
was placed within a phial, holding about six ounces of 
alcohol^ in which state it has been preserved even with 
its colour unaltered, and may be so for any length of 
time, provided it be kept as free from the external air as 
if it were hermetically sealed. The smell of the fruit? 
when fresh gathered, is delicious 

Dr. Clarke speaks no less gratefully of another Swedish 
plant of this genus than Linnaeus does of the Arctic 
Raspberry. He considered it, indeed, the preserver of 
his life; a circumstance which gives an interest to this 
plant, sufficient to authorise our citing his own words, 
though at some length : 

" In the evening Mr. Grape's children came into the 
room, bringing with them two or three gallons of the 
fruit of the Cloudberry, or Rubus chamcemorus. This 
plant grows so abundantly near the river, that it is easy 
to gather bushels of the fruit. As the large berry ripens, 
which is as big as the top of a man's thumb, its colour, 
at first scarlet, becomes yellow. When eaten with sugar 
and cream, it is cooling and delicious, and tastes like the 
large American hautboy strawberries. Little did the 
author dream of the blessed effects he was to experience 
by tasting of the offering brought by these little children, 
who, proud of having their gifts accepted, would gladly 
run and gather daily a fresh supply, which was as 
often blended with cream and sugar by the hands of 
their mother; until at last he perceived that his fever 
rapidly abated, his spirits and his appetite were restored, 
and when sinking under a disorder so obstinate that it 
seemed to be incurable, the blessings of health were 



* Clarke's TraveiS;, v. ill, p. 459, 



BRAMBLE. 59 

restored to him, where he had reason to beheve he should 
have found his grave. The symptoms of amendment 
were ahnost instantaneous after eating of these berries*." 

In another passage he says : " A kind of jelly, made 
of the fruit of the Cloudberry, was served with cream 
for our dinner. Our benevolent host, finding the salu- 
tary change produced in the author's health by eating of 
this fruit, caused it to be sent to table in ail the various 
ways of cooking it known in Sweden. The Lapps make 
a jelly of it, by boiling it with fish. At this time, the 
bogs near the water-side were covered with the fruit in 
a ripe state. Our Swedish interpreter gathered half a 
bushel of the berries in an hour and a half. In its natural 
state, no fruit looks more beautiful. We endeavoured 
to preserve a small cask of it to send to England ; but 
wanting a sufficient quantity of sugar, the acetous fer- 
mentation took place, and the whole was spoiled. When- 
ever we walked near the river, we found whole acres 
covered with its blushing berries, hanging so thick, that 
we could not avoid treading upon them. As they ripen, 
they lose their crimson hue, and turn yellow ; the flavour 
of the fruit is not then so refreshing to the palate. They 
are always most delicious when they have been cooked. 
In their unripe state, they resemble in taste those di- 
minutive stunted apples gathered from codlin-trees, which 
boys call crumplings. Although they flourish most in 
marshy places, their roots do not strike into the swamp, 
but are found covering the hard and dry mounds of earth 
which rise above it-f." 

Linnaeus believed the Rulms Arcticus, and the Rubiis 

* Clarke's Travels, vol. iii. p. 376. 
t Ibid. p. 417. 



60 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



chamccmorus^ to grow only in Sweden, and even there 
not in the southern provinces. The fruit of both these 
species is sent in casks to Stockholm, annually; where it 
is used in soup, and as a sauce with meat; as well as 
for making vinegar, and other culinary purposes. The 
Cloudberry is much more plentiful than the other, and 
is eaten by the Lapps with the milk of the rein-deer. 
During the winter, they preserve it in snow. 

Dr. Clarke was not ignorant that the Cloudberry 
grows in this country, but he took pains to bring some 
of the fruit from Sweden, because it grows there in 
greater perfection than it does here. It is a native of 
some of our northern counties, and is not uncommon on 
the mountains of Scotland and Wales. The name of 
Cloudberry is supposed to have reference to its growth 
in mountainous situations. It is also called Knot, or 
Knout-berry. 

Dr. Clarke mentions this fruit many times in the 
course of the volume, and is never weary of praising it. 
" This singular fruit,**' says Mr. Brooke, " which de- 
servedly maintains so high a reputation, is found in the 
greatest plenty all over the North ; a providential circum- 
stance for the inhabitants, from the salubrious qualities 
it possesses*." 



* Brooke's Sweden, p. 197. 



BUTCHER^S BROOM. 



RUSCUS. 

SMILACEiE. DICECIA SYNGENESIA. 

Botanists are doubtful of the origin of the word Ruscus : Miller 
supposes it to be from Rusticus — a rustic plants because^ says he, 
the countrymen, in old times, used to lay it on their meat to defend 
it from mice. — French, le Houx freion, Buis piquant, Fragon 
piquant. — Italian, Rusco, Pontogopi. — English, Knee-holm, Knee- 
hulven, or Knee-holly, Wild Myrtle, and Prickly Pettigree. 

The Prickly Butcher' s-Broom, Ruscus aculeattis, is a 
native of the south of Europe, of Asia, and Africa ; in 
England, it is not uncommon in the woods and thickets, 
but does not grow in the northern counties. The leaves 
are very like those of the myrtle, but stiff, and ending 
in sharp prickly points. These leaves are very singular 
in their construction, and as the flowers are borne upon 
their face, it is a disputed point amongst botanists whe- 
ther they are truly leaves ; as some consider the plant to 
be, Uke dodder and a few others, leafless, and the ap- 
parent leaves to be winged footstalks of the flowers, or else 
expanded branches. It is, in fact, one of those singular 
cases on which as much may be said on one side as on the 
other. The flower is of a yellow green, or sometimes 
tinged with purple; it blossoms in March and April, 
and the seeds ripen in winter. 

The green shoots tied up in bundles are sold to the 
butchers for sweeping their blocks : hence their familiar 
appellation. In Italy, they are made into besoms; and 
the hucksters there place the boughs round their bacon 



62 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



and cheese, to defend them from mice. The young 
shoots gathered in spiing are sometimes eaten by the 
poor, in the manner of asparagus. 

When planted under trees and shrubs, it spreads into 
large clumps, and retaining the leaves all the winter, has 
a good effect. 

The thick leaved species, Ruscus hypojphyllus^ is a 
native of Italy and of Africa; it flowers in May and 
June : the double leaved, Ruscus hypoglossus, with pale 
yellow flowers, is in blossom a month earlier ; it grows 
naturally in Italy, Hungary, and Africa. 

The branches of these shrubs in winter, Avhen laden 
with the ripe red berries, are very handsome ; they keep 
fresh a long time in water, and w^ere formerly much 
used to adorn chimney-pieces, &c. 



BUTTON WOOD. 



CEPHALANTHUS. 

RUBIACE^. TETRANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 

The botanical name of this tree is derived from two Greek words, 
and signifies Head-flower, Button-wood, Button-tree, Pond-dog- 
wood. — Frenchj bois a boutons ; Italian, cefalanto. 

The American Button-wood was introduced here in 
1735, by Peter Collinson, Esq. In this country it grows 
six or seven feet high ; the leaves are nearly three inches 
long, and about an inch and a quarter wide, having a 
strong vein longitudinally through the middle, and several 
smaller veins running from thence to the borders ; they 
are of a light green, and the footstalks near the branches 
are frequently tinged with red. The ends of the branches 
are terminated by loose spikes of spherical heads, about 
the size of a marble, which are composed of many small 
pale yellow flowers, fastened to an axis in the middle; 
these appear in July, and in w arm seasons are succeeded 
by seeds, which sometimes ripen in England. 



CAROB TREE. 



CERATONIA SILIQUA. 

LEGUMINOS^. POLYGAMIA POLYCECIA. 

Also called St. John's Bread, and by some old writers. Bean- 
tree. — Frenchy caroubier ; Italian, cambbo. 

The Carob-tree grows to a considerable size, with 
many branches ; the leaves are pinnate, coiiiposed of 
thick stiff leaflets, nearly round, two or three inches in 
diameter. The blossoms grow in little red clusters with 
yellow stalks; these are succeeded by legumes an inch 
and a half broad, and from four to fourteen inches in 
length, which contain several flat seeds ; the husks are 
filled with a sweet juice. 

In Palestine, Greece, Italy, Barbary, &c., where this 
tree is very common, the fruit is suffered to ripen and 
grow dry upon the trees. The poor in those countries 
feed upon it, and it is also used to fatten cattle. 

Many persons have supposed the locusts eaten by St. 
John the Baptist to have been the fruit of this tree, and 
that the wild honey was the pulpy juice contained in the 
husk ; whence the tree has obtained the name of St. 
John's Bread. This notion, however, is generally con- 
sidered as fabulous ; but many writers agree that there 
is great reason to believe these to be the husks of which 
the Prodigal Son desired to partake with the swine. 
Columella, and other authors, speak of them as a com- 
mon food for swine, and as being frequently eaten by 
the poor. 



CAROB TREE. 



65 



The Carob-tree has been cultivated in England since 
1570; it endures our ordinary winters very well, but 
requires some Kttle protection in severe seasons. Gerarde 
speaks of it as newly sown in his garden, and promising 
well. 



F 



CAROLINA ALLSPICE. 



CALYCANTHUS FLORIDUS. 

CALYCANTHIDE.E. ICOSANDRIA POLYGYNIA. 

Calycaiithus is derived from two Greek words, signifying calyx 
and flower ; some persons considering the petals of the blossom as 
mere caly cine leaflets. — French, calycanth, lepampadour. — Italian, 
pampadurra. 

In its native country this shrub will grow nine or ten 
feet high, but in England its height seldom exceeds 
four feet. It divides near the ground into many slender 
branches, covered with a brown aromatic bark, with t 
leaves placed opposite at every joint. The flowers grow 
on short footstalks at the ends of the branches; their 
colour is a dingy purple, and their scent by no means 
agreeable: they blow in May. 

The inhabitants of Carolina gave it the name of Caro- 
lina Allspice, from the aromatic scent of its bark. It 
was introduced here by Mr. Catesby, in 1726, but was 
very scarce till the year 1757. 

There are two varieties, the long-leaved, and the 
round-leaved. 



CASSIA. 



LEGUMINOS.t. DECANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 

The derivation of the word is uncertain. 

Most of these plants require artificial heat in this 
country, but the Maryland Cassia, Cassia Marilandica, 
in a di'y soil and not too much exposed, will live abroad. 
It grows four o>' five feet high, the blossoms are of a 
pale yellow, and grow in loose spikes. It is a native of 
North America. 

The senna of the apothecaries is obtained from an 
Egyptian plant belonging to this genus. 

The poets' Cassia is of another genus, {Osyris alba): 
it has been asked why the epithet alba has been given to 
this plant, the flowers being yellow, and the berries red. 
The Cassia is described by the poets as white : — 

" A dimpled hand. 

Fair as some wonder out of fairy-iand. 

Hung from his shoulder : Uke the drooping flowers 

Of whitest Cassia, fresh from summer showers." 

Keats's Poems, p. 24 

Some have supposed the true Cassia to be the Cneorum, 
but that also has yellow blossoms ; others have believed 
that the Romans had two sorts of Cassia, one of which was 
the Cneorum, and the other a species of wild cinnamon. 
In this case, the white blossom is understood, but not 
the reason for calUng the Osyris alba. 

F 2 



68 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Mr. Keats expressly contrasts the blossom of the Cassia 
with that of the Laburnum : 

" Where the dark-leaved laburnum's drooping clusters 
Reflect athwart the stream their yellow lustres ; 
And, intertwined, the Cassia's arms unite 
With its own drooping buds^ but very white." 



Keats's Early Poems, p. 55. 




CATALPA. 



CATALPA SYRINGIFOLIA. 

BIGNONIE.'E. DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA. 

This genus was named Bignonia by Tournefort, in compliment 
to Abbe Bignon^ librarian to Louis the Fourteenth.— i^'rewcA, 
catalpe; Italian, catalpa. 

The Catalpa is a deciduous tree, rising with an upright 
stem to the height of forty feet ; it has many lateral 
branches, on which the leaves are placed opposite, at 
every joint : they are heart-shaped. The flowers grow in 
jarge branching panicles, towards the ends of the branches; 
they are of a dingy white, with a few purple spots, and 
faint stripes of yellow on the inside : these open in 
August, and are succeeded by long taper pods ; but it 
does not produce the fruit in this country. 

This tree was found by Mr. Catesby, in South Carolina, 
at a great distance from the English settlements; and 
brought to England in the year 1726. It is now not 
uncommon in our nurseries and plantations. In this 
climate the leaves come out very late; which, before 
the tree was well understood, has often led persons to 
think them dead, and even to cut them down on that 
supposition. 

The branches dye wool a kind of cinnamon colour. 
Thunberg says, the Japonese consider the leaves as 
beneficial to the nerves, and lay them on any part of the 
body affected with pain, as a cure for it. 



CEDAR TREE. 



PINUS CEDRUS. 

CONIFER^E. MONCECIA MONADELTHIA. 

French, cedre ; Italian, cedro. 

This tree was formerly placed with the larch, with 
which it agrees in foliation ; now both are included in the 
pine genus, with which the Cedar agrees in being an ever- 
green. 

" That noble tree, the Cedar of Lebanon," says Martyn, 
in his edition of Miller, " has a general striking character 
of growth so peculiar to itself, that no other tree can 
possibly be mistaken for it."" 

" Those which seem of the greatest antiquity,"' ob- 
serves Evelyn, " are indeed majestical. The sturdy arms 
grov/ in time so weighty as often to bend the very stem 
and main-shaft. The leaves much resemble those of the 
larch, but are somewhat longer, and closer set, erect, and 
perpetually green ; which those of the larch are not, 
but hanging down, dropping off, and deserting the tree 
in winter. The cones are tacked and ranged between 
the branch-leaves, in such order as nothing appears more 
curious and artificial, and at a little distance exceedingly 
beautiful ; these cones have the bases rounder, shorter, 
or rather, thicker, and with blunter points ; the whole 
circumzoned as it were, with pretty broad thick scales, 
which adhere together in exact series to the very summit, 
where they are somewhat smaller ; but the entire lori- 



CEDAR TREE. 



71 



cation smoother couched than those of the fir; within 
these repositories, under the scales, nestle the small nut- 
ting seeds, of a pear shape. These cones grow upon the 
upper part of the branches, and stand erect, having a 
strong, woody, central style, by which they are firmly 
annexed to the branch, so as with difficulty to be taken 
off; which central style remains upon the branch after 
the cone is fallen to pieces, for it never drops off whole, 
as those of the pines do.'"* 

Many wonderful properties are ascribed to the wood of 
this celebrated tree; such as its resisting putrefaction, 
destroying noxious insects, &c. ; continuing one, or, as some 
say, two thousand 3'ears sound ; yielding an oil famous 
for preserving writings ; purifying the ah' by its effluvia ; 
and, when used in wainscoting churches or chapels, 
inspiring the worshippers with a solemn awe. It was 
formerly used in embalming the dead. 

Evelyn, speaking of the timber, which, he says, is proof 
against all putrefaction, above ail other ingredients or 
compositions of embalmers; adds " and that by a pretty 
contradiction, giving life as it were to the dead, and 
destroying the worms which are living ; and, as it does 
where any goods are kept in chests or presses of the wood, 
excepting woollen cloth and furs, which it is observed 
they corrupt. Whatever other property this noble tree 
is deservedly famous for, it is said to yield an oil, which, 
above all other, best preserves the monuments of the 
learned, — books and \vritings." 

Many things are recorded of this wood, with regard 
to its length of duration ; it is said, that in the Temple of 
Apollo, at Utica, some was found that was two thousand 
years old ; and at Legunti, in Spain, a beam was dis- 
covered in an oratory consecrated to Diana, which was 



72 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



brought to Zante two centuries before the destruction of 
Troy; that Sesostris built a vessel of Cedar of two 
hundred and eighty cubits ; and that the statue of the 
goddess in the famous Ephesian temple, as well as most 
of the wood-work of that glorious structure, was of that 
material. 

Gerarde remarks, that the Gentiles w^ere wont to 
make their devils or images of this kind of wood, that 
they might last the longer." 

Martyn observes, that there has been great confusion 
of the Cedar of Lebanon with other trees also bearing 
the name of Cedar ; and that, as to the material used in 
the heathen temples, it is very uncertain. But in building 
the sumptuous temple and palace of Solomon at Jeru- 
salem, we have, as he says, better authority: — 

" And Solomon sent unto Hiram, saying, 
Now therefore command thou that they hew me cedar trees 
out of Lebanon. 

And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, 

" I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar, and con- 
cerning timber of fir. My servants shall bring them down from 
Lebanon unto the sea. 

" And I will convey them by sea, in floats, unto the place that 
thou shalt appoint me, and will cause them to be discharged there, 
and thou shalt receive them. 

^' And thou shalt accomplish my desire in giving food for my 
household. So Hiram gave Solomon cedar-trees, and fir-trees, 
according to all his desire 

" And King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel ; and the levy 
was thirty thousand men. 

" And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month, by 
courses ; a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home. 

* 1 Kings, chap. v. verse 6 — 11. 



CEDAR TREE. 



73 



" And Solomon had threescore and ten thousand that bare bur- 
dens, and fourscore thousand hewers in the mountains*." 

So he built the house and finished it, and covered the house 
with beams and boards of cedar. 

And then he built chambers against all the house, five cubits 
high ; and they rested on the house with timber of cedar t." 

" And the cedar of the house v/ithin was carved with knops and 
open flowers : all was cedar, there was no stone seen. 

" And he built the inner court with three rows of hewed stone, 
and a row of cedar beams %." 

" Solomon built also the house of the Forest of Lebanon, .... 
upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars. 
And the porch of judgment was covered with cedar from one 
side of the floor to the other §."' 

" What we find mentioned in the Scriptures, of the 
lofty cedar,"' says Miller, " can be no ways applicable 
to the stature of this tree, since, from the experience we 
have of those now growing in England, as also from 
the testimony of several travellers who have visited those 
few remaining trees on Mount Libanus, they are not in- 
clined to grow very lofty, but, on the contrary, extend 
their branches very far : to which the allusion made by 
the Psalmist agrees very well, when he is describing the 
flourishing state of a people, and says, they shall spread 
their branches like the cedar-tree.'' 

Martyn, referring to this passage, says, the allusion 
of the Psalmist, of spreading abroad hke a Cedar in Le- 
banon, shows that he was well acquainted with this tree, 
which is remarkable for the wide spread of its branches, 

* 1 Kings, chap. v. verses 13 — 15. 
t Chap. vi. verses 9 and 10. 

% Verses 18 and 36. 

§ Chap. vii. verses 2 and 7, 



7* 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



rather than for its height. Had Milton known it as well, 

he would not have used the expression of the 

" Insuperable height of loftiest shade — " 

in speaking of the cedar.'" 

But do the trees here described by Milton necessarily 
stand on level ground ? does he not rather appear to de- 
scribe a steep rising ground, well clothed with trees, 
showing their heads in ranks ? — 

" So on he fares^, and to the border comes 
Of Eden, where dehcious Paradise, 
Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure green. 
As with a rural mound, the champain head 
Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides 
With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild. 
Access denied ; and over head up-grew 
Insuperable height of loftiest shade. 
Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm — 
A sylvan scene : and, as the ranks ascend 
Shade above shade, a woody theatre 
Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops 
The verdurous wall of Paradise up-sprung : 
Which to our general sire gave prospect large 
Into his nether empire neighbouring round. 
And higher than that wall, a circling row 
Of goodliest trees, loaden vvith fairest fruit. 
Blossoms and fruits at once of golden hue 
Appeared, with gay enamelled colours mixed : 
On which the sun more glad impressed his beams 
Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow. 
When God hath showered the earth j so lovely seemed 
That landskip." 

Paradise Lost, book iv. 

In another passage, too, he describes 

" the garden of God, with cedars crowned 

Above all hills,' 



CEDAR TREE. 



75 



There are various passages in Scripture which bear 
alhision to the hixuriant growth of the Cedar. The 
Psalmist, hkening the church to a fair spreading vine, 
says — 

The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs 
thereof were like the goodly cedars. 

She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto 
the river*." 

Again : — 

" The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree ; he shall grow 
like a cedar in Lebanon. 

Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish 
in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old 
age ; they shall be fat and flourishing f." 

" The trees of the Lord are full of sap, the cedars of Lebanon 
which he hath planted %" 

In Ezekiel, where the power of God to raise the hum- 
ble and to lower those in power is described by a parable, 
is the following passage : — 

" Thus saith the Lord God, I will also take of the highest 
branch of the high cedar, and will set it ; 1 will crop off from the 
top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high 
mountain and eminent. 

" In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it, and it 
shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar 

This last passage particularly bears reference to the 
height of the cedar ; as does also the following : 

" Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them ; whose height was 
like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks 

* Psalm Ixxx. iO, 11. t Psalm xcii. 12, 13, 14. 

% Psalm civ. 16. § Ezekiel, xvii. 22, 23. 

j! Amos, chap. ii. verse 9. 



76 SYLVAN sketchp:s. 

Again, mention is made of 

" The cedars of Lebanon^ that are high and lifted up*." 

Miller observes, that it is remarkable that, as far as 
has come to our knowledge, the Cedar should not be 
found as a native of any other part of the world than 
Mount Lebanon ; but Martyn, in a later edition of Mil- 
ler's Dictionary, says, " it is not only found on Mount 
Lebanon, but Belon observed it on the mountains of 
Amanus and Taurus." 

Few of the trees now rem.ain on Mount Lebanon ; nor 
is it likely there should remain many, after the industrious 
felling of fourscore thousand hewers employed there. 

" The spreading Cedar that an age had stood. 
Supreme of trees, and mistress of the wood. 
Cut down and carved, ray shining roof adorns : 
And Lebanon his ruined honour mourns." 

Prior's Solomon. 

Ranv>'olff, in 1575, saw only twenty-four sound trees, 
and two which were old and decayed. " We found our- 
selves," says he, " upon the highest point of the mountain, 
and saw nothing higher, but only a small hill before us 
all covered with snow, at the bottom whereof the high 
Cedar-trees were standing. And though this hill hath in 
former ages been quite covered with Cedar-trees, yet they 
are since so decreased, that I could tell no more but twenty- 
four that stood round about in a circle ; and two others, 
the branches whereof are quite decayed for age. I also 
went about in this place to look for some young ones, but 
could find none at all. These trees are green all the year 
long, have strong stems that are several fathoms about, 
and are as high as our fir-trees." 

* Isaiah, chap. ii. verse 13. 



CEDAK TREE. 



Ti 



A hundred and twenty-one years after the time of 
which this traveller speaks, Maundrell reckons only six- 
teen large trees, but mentions several small ones. He 
says, that having proceeded for three hours across the 
plain of Tripoh, he arrived at the foot of Libanus, 
which continually ascending, with some fatigue, he came, 
in four hours and a half, to a small village called Eden ; 
and in two hours and a half more to the Cedai's. " These 
noble trees,'" continues he, " grow amongst the snow, 
near the highest part of Libanus, and are remarkable, as 
well for their own age and largeness, as for the frequent 
allusions made to them in the Word of God. Here are 
some very old, and of a prodigious bulk, and others 
younger, of a smaller size. Of the former, I could 
reckon up only sixteen ; the latter are very numerous. 
I measured one of the largest, and found it twelve yards 
six inches in girth, and yet sound ; and thirty-seven 
yards in the spread of its boughs. At about five or six 
yards from the ground, it was divided into five hmbs, 
each of which was equal to a great tree*."' 

The traveller Le Bruyn reckons about five or six-and- 
thirty trees remaining on Mount Libanus when he was 
there, and would insinuate that it is not easy to .count 
them ; as it has been said of the stones at Stonehenge. 

" It is a folly,"' says Thevenot, " to say, that when 
the cedars of Mount Lebanon are counted several times, 
their number is found each time to vary ; for there are 
in all but twenty-three, great and small 

This author went there about eighty years after 
Ranwolff, who counted six-and-twentv ; and forty years 

* MaundrelFs Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem^ page 142 
t Thevenot's Voyage du Levant, in 1655 ; part i. p. 443; edi- 
tion 1664. 



78 



SYLYAN SKETCHES. 



before Maundrell, who reckoned sixteen, besides a few 
small ones. 

The few trees yet left on Mount Lebanon are preserved 
with a religious strictness. On the day of the Trans- 
figuration, the patriarch repairs in procession to these trees, 
and celebrates the festival called the Feast of Cedars. 

There is little doubt but these trees are now far more 
numerous in England than in their native place. Miller 
expresses surprise that the cultivation of the Cedar was 
so long neglected in this country, when it would be so 
ornamental on barren and bleak mountains ; where few 
others would flourish so well as this, which is a native of 
the colder parts of Mount Libanus, where the snow lies 
nearly all the year. " That these trees are of quick 
growth,"" continues he, " is evident from four of them in 
the Botanic Garden at Chelsea, which, as I have been cre- 
dibly informed, were planted there in the year 1683, and 
at that time were not above three feet high. Two of 
these trees were, in 1766, upwards of twelve feet and a 
half in girth, at two feet above the ground, and their 
branches extended more than twenty feet on every side 
their trunks ; which branches, though they were produced 
twelve or fourteen feet above the surface, did, at every 
termination, hang very near the ground, and thereby 
afford a goodly shade in the hottest season of the year."" 

In another passage, he describes the character of their 
growth in a more particular manner : — " These trees are 
by many people kept as pyramids, and sheared as yews, 
&c., in which form they lose their greatest beauty ; for 
the extension of the branches is very singular in this 
tree — the ends of the shoots for the most part declining, 
and thereby shov/ing their upper surface ; which is con- 
stantly clothed with green leaves in so regular a manner, 



CEDAH TREE. 



79 



as to appear at some distance like a green carpet, and 
there waving about with the winds, make one of the most 
agreeable prospects that can be to terminate a vista, espe- 
cially if planted on a rising ground."''' 

When once the Cedar-tree has left the nursery, no 
knife or hatchet must be suffered to touch it ; even the 
lopping of the lowest branches is injurious, both retard- 
ing the growth and diminishing the beauty. 

The trees just mentioned as growing in the Botanic 
Garden at Chelsea were planted in a lean hungry sand 
mixed with gravel, to the depth of about two feet ; be- 
yond which, the soil is a hard rocky gravel. They stood 
at the four corners of a pond, bricked up within two feet 
of their trunks, so that their roots having no room to 
spread on one side, were cramped in their growth ; but it 
is supposed they were as much benefited by their vicinity 
to the water, as injured by the confinement of the roots. 

Mr. Martyn observes upon this, that probably the 
roots, finding themselves stopped by the brick walls, 
tended downwards, and spread themselves in the moist 
earth under the water, which greatly promoted the growth 
of the trees ; for, upon this pond being filled up, these 
noble trees decayed, and were quickly ruined for want of 
their accustomed beverage. 

In the Scriptures the Cedar is spoken of as flourishing 
near the water, where the greatness and glory of Assyria 
is likened unto a Cedar-tree. It is thus described : 

Behold the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon, with fair 
branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature ; 
and his top was among the thick boughs. 

The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high, 
with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her 
little rivers unto all the trees of the field. 



80 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



" Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the 
field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became 
long, because of the multitude of the waters when he shot forth." 

All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and 
under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their 
young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations. 

" Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches, 
for his root was by great waters. 

" The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him ; the fir 
trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like 
his branches ; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him 
in his beauty. 

" I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches, so that 
all the trees of Eden that were in the garden of God envied him*." 

Neither Turner, Parkinson, nor Gerarde, speak of 
the Cedar as growing here. Mr. Evelyn says, it was 
not cultivated here in 1664 ; he expresses himself warmly 
on the subject, and probably may have assisted in turning 
the planter's attention to it. He says he received cones 
and seeds of the few remaining trees on Lebanon ; " and 
why they should not thrive in Old England, continues 
he, " I know- not, save for want of industry and trial.'' 

In the gardens of the old manor-house at Enfield in 
1670, when it was occupied by Robert Uvedale, LL.D. 
who kept a flourishing school there, among other curious 
trees he planted a Cedar. In the year 1788, an account 
of this tree was published in the Gentleman's Magazine ; 
where it is described as being forty-five feet nine inches 
in height, eight feet having been broken from the top by 
the hurricane in 170S ; and at the largest part, it mea- 
sured fourteen feet six inches in circumference. 

Many other Cedars of considerable size have been 
scattered about in different parts of the kingdom. Some 
of the finest were planted by Archibald Duke of Argyle ; 
* Ezekiel, chap. xxxi. verses 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. 



CEDAR TREE. 



81 



of which one of the most remarkable was destroyed by a 
hurricane on the 1st of January 1779. It grew on the 
north side of Hendon-place, in Middlesex; its height 
was seventy feet ; the diameter of the horizontal extent 
of the branches was one hundred feet ; the circumference 
of the trunk, at the lai'gest part, twenty-one feet. It 
began to branch about twelve feet from the ground ; and 
the hmbs, of which there were ten, measured from six 
feet to twelve in circumference. This tree is supposed 
to have been two hundred years old, and tradition says, 
it was planted by Ehzabeth herself : but as Martyn justly 
observes, tradition is seldom to be depended upon, and 
Queen Elizabeth is a gTeat favourite with tradition- 
mongers. Is it probable,**' continues he, " if such a tree 
had existed in 1579? that Gerarde, Pai'kinson, arid Evelyn 
should know nothing of it ? When blown down it was 
perfectly sound, and seemed as if not grown to maturity ; 
it is probable therefore that it was not two hundred yeai's 
old, for the Cedars at Chelsea attained their full size, and 
decayed, in less than a century.'' 

There is little strength in this argument, for it has 
just been observed, that the growth of those trees was 
accelerated by their vicinity to a pond, and their decay 
by the filling up of the pond. 

Dr. Hunter describes a fine Cedar growing at Hilling- 
ton, near Uxbridge, supposed at that time to be aged one 
hundred and sixteen years. 

" The only relic of Dr. James Sherard's famous 
botanic garden at Eltham," observes Martyn, " so ele- 
gantly displayed by Dillenius, is a Cedar of Lebanon, 
which girts nine feet at three feet from the ground.'' 

Mortimer, in his Art of Husbandry (1708), affirms, 
that he had raised several Cedars from cones which he 

G 



82 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



had from Lebanon, and that he then had a walk planted 
with them. It was not until 1730 that the seeds ripened 
in England, which they do now in a manner to leave no 
fear of supply, without having cones from Lebanon. It 
has been observed, that they ripen better in severe seasons 
than in mild ones. 

The Cedar-wood, commonly knomi by that name in 
England, is not from this tree, but is that of the Bermudas 
Cedar, or Bermudas Juniper, Juniperus Bermudiana. 

Notwithstanding the objections made against Milton, 
on that head, the Cedar has been generally characterized 
by the poets as a lofty tree : — 

" So when Jove's bird on some tall cedar's head 
Has a new race of generous eaglets bred, 
While yet unplnmed within the nest they lie. 
Wary she turns them to the eastern sky : 
Then if, unequal to the god of day, 
Abashed they shrink and shun the potent ray, 
She spurns them forth and casts them quite away ; 
But if with daring eyes unmoved they gaze, 
"^rithstand the Hght and bear the golden blaze. 
Tender she broods them with a parent's love 
The future servants of her master Jove." 

Rowe's Lucaiij bookix. 

" No tree that is of count in greenwood grows. 
From lowest juniper to cedar tall. 
No flower in field that dainty odour throws 
And decks his branch with blossoms over all. 
But there was planted, or grew natural." 

Spexser. 

Spenser, in his Visions of the World's Vanity, supposes 
one of these noble Cedars destroyed by a httle worm : 

" High on a hill a goodly cedar grew. 
Of wondrous length and straight proportion. 



CEDAR TREE. 



S3 



That far abroad her dainty odours threw ; 
'Mongst all the daughters of proud Lebanon^ 
Her match in beauty was not any one. 
Shortly, \dthin her inmost pith there bred 
A httle wicked worm — " 

Solomon makes this honest confession : 

The vegetable world, each plant and tree. 

Its seed, its name, its nature, its degree, 

I am allowed, as Fame reports, to know ; 

From the fair cedar, on the craggy brow 

Of Lebanon, nodding supremely tall. 

To creeping moss and hyssop on the wall — 

Yet, just and conscious to myself, I find 

A thousand doubts oppose the searching mind." 

Prior. 

The Cedar is usually described either as lofty, far- 
spreading, straight, or as a sacred tree : 

Cedars here. 

Coeval with the sky-crowned mountain's self. 
Spread wide their giant arms." 

Ma SOX. 

The cedar, whose top mates the highest cloud, 
WTiilst his old father Lebanon grows proud 
Of such a child, and his vast body laid 
Out many a mile, enjoys the fihal shade." 

Churchill. 

Bear me, Pomona i to thy citron groves ; 
To where the lemon and the piercing lime. 
With the deep orange, glowing through the green. 
Their lighter glories blend. Lay me recHned 
Beneath the spreading tamarind, that shakes. 
Fanned by the breeze, its fever-cooHng fruit. 
Deep in the night the massy locust sheds, 

G 9, 



84 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Quench my hot limbs ; or lead me through the maze. 

Embowering endless, of the Indian fig. 

Or thrown at gayer ease, on some fair brow. 

Let me behold, by breezy murmurs cooled. 

Broad o'er my head the verdant cedar wave. 

And high palmettos lift their graceful shade." 

Thomson: Sum 771 e7\ 

Shakespeare makes Cranmer say of King James, in 
anticipation of his birth — 

" he shall flourish. 

And like a mountain cedar, reach his branches 
To all the plains about him 

But this passage, which occurs in the last scene of 
Henry the Eighth, is by some persons supposed to have 
been added by Ben Jonson after the accession of James. 

On high the cedar 

Stoops, like a monarch to his people bending. 
And casts his sweets around hira." 

B. Cornwall. 

Armstrong, speaking of the cooling fruits and generous 
shades afforded to the inliabitants of hot chmates, says — 

" The breeze, eternal breathing round their limbs, 
Supports in else intolerable air ; 
While the cool palm, the plantain, and the grove 
That waves on gloomy Lebanon, assuage 
The torrid hell that beams upon their heads." 

The idea of Lebanon is ever connected with that of the 
Cedar, for which it is celebrated : 

^' Long have they viewed from far wdth wishing eyes 
Our fruitful vales, our fig-trees, ohves, vines. 
Our cedars, palms, and all the verdant wealth 
That crowns fair Lebanon's aspiring brow\" 

Siege of Damascus. 



CEDAR TREE. 



85 



Now upon Syria's land of roses 
Softly the light of eve reposes, 
And, like a glory, the broad sun 
Hangs over sainted Lebanon ; 
Whose head in wintry grandeur towers. 
And whitens with eternal sleet, 
WTiile summer, in a vale of flowers. 
Is sleeping rosy at his feet." 

Moore's Paradise and the Peri. 

" Down in a vale where lucid waters strayed 

And mountain-cedars stretched their downward shade." 

Montgomery. 

Moore, in his Lallah Rookh, quotes a passage from 
Dandini, in which he says that the rivulet of Mount 
Lebanon is called the Holy River, from the " cedar- 
saints'" among which it rises — 

One of that ancient hero line 
Along whose glorious current shine 
Names that have sanctified their blood ; 
As Lebanon's small mountain-flood 
Is rendered holy by the ranks 
Of sainted cedars on its banks !" 

But in a note at the end of the volume, the poet tells 
us a different cause has been assigned for giving this 
stream the epithet Holy : "In these are deep caverns, 
which formerly served as so many cells for a great num- 
ber of recluses, who had chosen these retreats as the only 
witnesses upon earth of the severity of their penance. 
The tears of these pious penitents gave the river of which 
we have just treated the name of the Holy River.^ — 
{^See CliateauhriandbS Beauties of ChristianitLf.) 

Sir Philip Sidney compares the Cedar to a lady of 
dignified carriage — 



86 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



" But to the cedar, Queene of woods, when I lift my be-teared 
eyes^ 

Then do I shape to myself e that forme which raigns so withm 
me, 

And thinke there she doth dwell, and heare what plaints I do 
utter ; 

"^Vhen that noble top doth nod, I believe she salutes me ; 
When by the whid it maketh a noyse I doe think she doth 
answer." 

Book 1st. 

The passage is too long, to give the whole of it ; for 
the verses of that illustrious man are not the most poetica 
parts of his writings. In another part of tliis volume, 
he alludes to the proverbial straightness of the Cedar : 

" As sweet as violets, fau-e as a lilly is, 
Str eight as a cedar " 

Book 2d. 

This passage also has reference to the person of the 
lady the smger celebrates. Shakespeare makes a similai' 
comparison, in Love's Labour Lost, where Dumain comes 
in praising his mistress : the wonder of a mortal eye f 
he says she is as upright as the cedar.*' 

Shakespeare fi'equently mentions the Cedar : in Hemy 
the Sixth, the 2d part, Waricick sa^'s, in answer to Chf- 
ford— 

This day I '11 wear aloft my burgonet 
(As on a mountain-top the cedar shews 
That keeps its leaves in spite of any storrn). 
E'en to affright thee with the ^-iew thereof." 

According to Ivlassinger, however, it is not so tenacious 
of its roots : 

" Cedars, once shaken with a storm, their own 
'Weight grubs their roots out." 

Maid o f Honour, Act Sd, Scene 1st. 



CEDAR TREE. 



87 



Fairfax designates the Cedar as proud, in reference, 
probably, to its erect growth : 

Proud cedar ; oak, the king of forests crowned/' 

Spenser, too, names it, " The cedar proud and tall.*" 
Drayton terms it, The tufted Cedar/' 



CELASTRUS. 



CELASTRINE^. PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 

French, bourreau des arbres ; Italian, celastre. It is sometimes 
familiarly called StafF-tree ; being called Celastrus from an ever- 
green shrub so named by Theophrastus, and described by him as 
fit for no use but to make staves for old men*. 

The Celastrus bullatus in many parts of North 
America, where it grows naturally, rises to a height of 
nine or ten feet, but in this country it seldom exceeds 
five. Several stems grow from one root, and these again 
divide into many branches, covered with a brown bark, 
and clothed with leaves about three inches long, and two 
broad : the flowers grow in loose spikes at the ends of 
the branches ; they are white, and blow in July. This 
shrub rarely ripens seed in England. 

The Celastrus scandens, or Climbing StafF-tree, has 
very flexible stalks, which wind round each other, or 
round any tree or shrub that happens to be near, to the 
height of fourteen feet, or more ; binding the trees to 
which it clings so tight as sometimes to destroy them. 
The leaves are of a lively green on the upper surface, but 
much paler beneath ; the flowers make little show, but 
the fruit is, when ripe, very ornamental, being then of a 
bright red. It flowers in June, and the seeds ripen in 
autumn. 

* Johnson^ the editor of Gerarde's Herbal^ supposes the Celastrus 
of Theophrastus to have been the evergreen privet^ and therefore 
gives it as one of the names of that shrub. 



CELASTRUS. 



89 



Thunberg observed a species of the Celastrus in Japan, 
which for the singular appearance of its winged branches, 
he named the Celastrus alatus ; he describes it as a 
handsome shrub, and observes, that it is commonly cul- 
tivated in the gardens of the Japonese. The young men 
hang branches of the flowers over the doors of a house, 
when they would signify their desire to pay addresses to 
a young woman within *. 



* Thunberg's Travels, vol. iii, p. 84. 



COLUTEA. 



LEGUMINOS^t:. DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA. 

The derivation of the name is uncertain : it is sometimes called 
Bladder Senna French, baguenaudier ; Italian, colutea. 

The common Colutea, Colidea arhorescens^ has several 
stems, which grow twelve or fourteen feet high, and 
divide into many branches clothed with leaves, four or 
five lobed on each side, with an odd one at the end, each 
lobe indented in the form of a heart; they are of a 
grayish colour. The flowers are pea-shaped, or as the 
botanists term it papilionaceous, butterfly-shaped ; they 
are yellow, and grow two or three together, on a foot- 
stalk two inches long, rising from the axils of the leaves. 

It is a native of Italy, Camiola, the south of France, 
and the warmer parts of Switzerland ; it has been found 
on Mount Vesuvius, even in the ascent to the crater, 
where were few other plants : with us it flowers from 
June to August. The leaves have been used as a sub- 
stitute for those of senna ; which, with the form of the 
seed-vessel, has obtained it the name of Bladder Senna. 
It is said to afford a food grateful to cattle ; it was cul- 
tivated in England in the year 1570. Mr. Curtis ob- 
serves, that a wet soil is fatal to it. Miller recommends 
gardeners to suspend lobsters' claws or the bowls of 
tobacco-pipes on different parts of these shrubs to entice 
the earwigs, which are apt to nestle within the bladders 
and destroy the seeds. 



COLUTEA. 



91 



Gerarde says, if any of the branches be carelessly 
broken off, and as negligently stuck into the ground, it 
Avill take root and prosper, at whatever time of the year 
it be done. 

The Oriental Bladder Senna, Colutea cruenta^ is not 
more than half the height of the former , the flowers are 
smaller, of a red colour, marked with yellow; they 
blow in June. This was discovered in the Levant, by 
Toumefort, and cultivated by Miller in 1731. 

Pococke's Colutea, Colutea Pococki^ is also from the 
Levant — the seeds were first brought to England by 
Dr. Pococke ; it was cultivated by Miller in 1752. The 
height of this is similar to the last-mentioned shrub ; the 
flowers are yellow, and appear a month earlier than 
the other sorts; there is also a constant succession of 
them till late in the autumn. 

These shrubs make a pretty variety among other 
flowering shrubs, from the singular appearance of the 
pods and flowers; but unless sheltered by other trees, 
the branches are apt to be to torn, and disfigured by 
the wind. 



CHESTNUT TREE. 



CASTANEA VESCA. 

CORYLIDEJE. MONCECIA POLYANDRIA. 

The old botanical name for this tree was Castanea^ from a town 
in Thessaly about which it grew in great abundance; Linnaeus 
placed it in the same genus with the beech, but later botanists have 
restored its ancient name, and separated it from the beech. — 
French, chataignier ; Italian, castagno. 

The Chestnut, whei'e it has room, will grow to an 
enormous size, and spread its branches freely to a great 
distance on every side ; but where it is confined, it runs 
up to a considerable height, and is of much smaller bulk. 
The leaves are large, of a lucid green, four or five inches 
long, and two in width ; somewhat wrinkled, and marked 
with several transverse veins, proceeding from a strong 
midrib. The blossoms grow in little balls, without any 
foot-stalk, and the calyx becomes the capsule or case 
which contains the nuts. 

" The Chestnut in maturity,'' says Mr. Gilpin, " is 
a noble tree, and growls not unlike the oak.^' 

" Being planted in hedge-rows,'' says Evelyn ; " or for 
avenues to our country-houses, they are a magnificent 
and royal ornament." 

It is commonly called the Spanish Chestnut in this 
country; either because it came to us from Spain, or 
because the fruit, which grows to great perfection in that 
warm climate, is brought from thence. The nuts are 



CHESTNUT TREE. 



93 



but small that grow in England, and are generally left 
for the hogs and squirrels. 

Some say that the Chestnut is indigenous of this 
country. EveljTi strongly supports this opinion ; he says, 
he had once a large barn near London, formed entirely 
of its timber, " and certainly," continues he, " the trees 
grew not far off, probably in some wood near the to^\Ti, 
for in that description of London written by Fitz- 
Stephens, in the reign of Henry the Second, he speaks 
of a very noble and large forest which grew to the north 
of it. And yet some will not allow the Chestnut to be a 
free-bom of this island, but of that I have little doubt."' 

Dr. Ducarel is of the same opinion; in support of 
which, he appeals to the ancient records, among wliich 
he finds a deed of gift from Henry the Second to Flexley 
Abbey, of the tithe of all his Chestnuts in the Forest of 
Dean. 

Miller remarks, that it was formerly in greater plenty 
in England than of late years : " as may be proved," 
says he, " by the old buildings, which were for the most 
part of this timber ; and there are decayed old Chestnuts 
in the woods and chases about London, particularly 
Enfield Chase." 

Martyn does not support these claims, but doubts 
whether the timber in our old buildings, supposed by 
Miller and others to be Chestnut, be not oak of an in- 
ferior quality. 

This tree is a native of many parts of Asia, China, 
Cochin China, Japan, &c. and is naturalized in most 
countries of the south of Europe. It is said that Tiberius 
Caesar first brought it from Sardis in Lydia to Italy, 
whence it was carried to other parts of Europe. 

It has been observed, that the Chestnut makes a 



94 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



frequent and a handsome figure in the landscapes of 
Salvator Rosa. 

It is a very long-hved tree, and there are several indi- 
viduals remarkable for their large growth. The famous 
Castagno di cento Cavalli on Mount Etna, as measured 
by Mr. Brydone in 1770, is tv/o hundred and four feet 
in circumference : some indeed have doubted whether 
this be really one tree, and Brydone himself thought 
there might have been, from the appearance, five trees ; 
but he was assured the space had formerly been filled 
with solid timber, and there was certainly no bark on the 
inside. One person professed to have dug the earth from 
the roots, and ascertained by them that there was one 
tree only. " I alleged,'' says tlie author, " that so ex- 
traordinary an object must have been mentioned by many 
of their writers : he told me that it had, and produced 
several examples.'' He says that Massa, one of their 
most esteemed authors, says of a Chestnut-tree, which 
may probably be the tree in question, that the hollow of 
it contained three hundred sheep, and thirty people on 
horseback had often been in it at a time. Brydone 
quotes the following lines on this subject from Bogolini : 

Supremos inter montes monstrosior omni 
Monstrosi foetum stipitis JEtna dedit, 
Castaneam genuit;, cujus modo concava cortex 
Turmam equitum baud parvum continet;, atque greges 

II Castagno del Galea measured seventy-six feet round, 
at two feet from the ground. " It rises from one sohd stem 
to a considerable height, after which it branches out, and 
is a much finer object than the other." He mentions 
a third, of nearly the same size, called II Castagno del 



* Brydoiie's Tour through Sicily and Malta, letter 6. 



CHESTNUT TREE. 



95 



Nava. The extraordinary size of these trees may be in 
some measure owing to the rich soil formed from the 
ashes of the volcano. Dr. Clarke, in his Travels in Sweden, 
obser^'es, that some plants will grow and thi'ive in an ex- 
traordinary- manner, in those parts of the forests where 
the trees have been consmned by fire. 

Captain Smith, who ^-isited Momit Etna eight or ten 
vears since, says, " That father of the forest, the vene- 
rable Castagno di cento Cavalli, supposed to be the oldest 
tree in the world, appears to consist of five large and two 
smaller trees ; wliich, from the circumstance of the bark 
and boughs being all outside, are considered to have been 
one trunk originally. Some say the two smaller ones 
are saphngs, planted purposely to complete the ch'cle : 
the peasants strongly afiirmed that the roots, having been 
inspected, were found to be in common, but not having 
had the means or permission myself of examining further 
into the fact, I could not form a decided opinion. The 
largest trunk is thu'ty-eight feet in circmnference, and 
the circuit of the whole five, measured just above the 
ground, is one hundred and sixty-three feet. It still 
bears rich fohage, and much small fruit, though the 
heart of the trunks is decayed, and a pubhc road leads 
through them. Some other trees of the same species, 
and of a very large size, are spread over the adjacent 
^rounds 

There is a great difference in the measurement of 
Captain Smith and Mr. Brydone's; no less than forty- 
one feet : yet it is not hkely that Mr. Brydone should 
have been mistaken in his calculation, as his friend 
Mr. Glover, who was with him, measured it also, and 



* Sicily and its Islands, by Captain Smith, R. N. p. 148. 



96 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



found the size the same, two hundred and four feet. 
Can decay have decreased its size so much ? 

There are many fine Chestnuts on the banks of the 
river Tamer in Cornwall, and at Beckworth Castle, in 
Surrey. At Wimley , in Herts, a Chestnut in the year 
1789 measured above fourteen yards round, at five feet 
from the ground : the trunk was hollow, but the vegeta- 
tion still vigorous. 

There was an old decayed tree in Gloucestershire, 
which contained within it a pretty wainscoted room, 
enlightened with windows, and furnished with seats. 

The most remarkable tree of this kind in England is 
the celebrated one at Tort worth, tlie seat of Lord Ducie, 
in Gloucestershire : even in the year 1150, it was called 
the Great, or the Old Chestnut of Tortworth. It fixes the 
boundary of the manor, and is supposed to be upwards of 
a thousand years old. In 1720 it measured fifty-one feet 
in girth, at six feet from the ground ; it divided at the 
crown into three limbs, one of which measured twenty- 
eight feet and a half in girth, five feet above the crown. 

" Lord Ducie,'' says Martyn, " has a beautiful painting 
of this ancient tree. I have, by the favour of his lord- 
ship an etching of it, made in 1772, with this inscription : 
' The east view of the ancient Chestnut-tree at Tortworth, 
in the county of Gloucester, which measures nineteen 
yards in circumference ; and is mentioned by Sir Robert 
Atkins, in his history of that county, as a famous tree in 
King John's time ; and by Mr. Evelyn, in his Sylva, 
to have been so remarkable for its magnitude in the 
reign of King Stephen, as then to be called the Great 
Chestnut of Tortworth ; from which it may reasonably be 
supposed to have been standing before the Conquest.' 
When this etching was made, it was barely included 



CHESTNUT TREE. 



97 



within the garden wall, which bore hard upon it ; but 
the present Lord Dacie removed the incumbrance, and 
at the same time applied fresh earth to the roots, which 
seems to have enlivened it. So late as the year 1788 it 
produced great quantities of fruit, which, though small, 
was sweet and well-flavoured. 

Mr. Lysons, who has etched two views of this famous 
tree, contradicts most of the former accounts : he speaks 
of it in the year 1791 as measuring but forty-four feet 
four inches round at the thickest part ; — says there is no 
authority but vague tradition to show at what period it 
became remarkable for its size, and affirms that it could 
never have been the boundary of the manor, for that it 
stands in the middle of it. 

Sir Robert Atkins, too, who gives the circumference 
at nineteen yards, at an earlier period, thinks that ori- 
ginally there were several trees : and Mr. Marshall sup- 
poses that there are two trees joined together. 

The largest Chestnut, therefore, of which we have any 
knowledge, and of wliich there have been no doubts as 
to individuality, is II Castagno del Galea, before men- 
tioned. 

The leaves of the Chestnut remain on late in the 
autumn, when they are of a rich golden colour. Martyn 
remarks, that the nuts are a favourite food of the deer. 
It has been observed, that when many of these trees are 
planted together near a house, the odour, which to many 
persons is very offensive, is apt to be too powerful. 
Nothing will thrive under its shade. 

The soundness of the timber has been much ques- 
tioned by some; but it has proved, on some occasions, 
superior to the oak itself. It is particularly adapted 

H 



98 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



for casks and water-pipes, not being liable to shrink after 
it is once seasoned. 

" Staves that nor shrink nor swell 

The cooper's close-wrought cask to chestnut owes." 

DODSLEY. 

In Italy it is planted for stakes for vines ; and with 
us for hop-poles. Some of the timber is finely varie- 
gated ; and a colour being given to it by the use of alum- 
water, logwood, and Brazil-wood, it has been taken for 
mahogany. 

Among the lower orders of the people in the Apen- 
nines, in Savoy, and some parts of the south of France, 
the nuts are a common article of food ; not only boiled 
or roasted, but also made into flour, and formed into 
bread, cakes, and puddings. They are considered hard 
of digestion ; yet there are instances in Italy of men living 
to the age of ninety or a hundi'ed years, who have fed 
wholly on Chestnuts. They are eaten in Italy with 
orange or lemon juice and sugar, and are sold in the 
streets, roasted on a portable furnace ; and were brought 
to fashionable tables in desserts, long before they were 
known as an article of luxury in England. These nuts 
are sometimes used for whitening Mnen, and for making 
starch. 

Mr. Mart3m deeply laments the neglect shown to this 
tree, and is earnest to encourage its cultivation. " Let 
us hope, however," says he, " to see it rear its head again 
as a timber-tree among us. A decree of the Council of 
Paris was published in May 1720, ordering that all the 
great roads should be planted with Chestnut, or other such 
fruit or forest trees as were suitable to the nature of the 



CHESTNUT TREE. 



99 



ground, at thirty feet distance from each other, and six 
feet from the top of the ditch.'' 

Miller remarks, that considerable plantations of Chest- 
nut have been made in the north of Great Britain. The 
Earl of Fife planted above sixty thousand trees in the 
county of Murray. In England, Mr. Windham's plan- 
tations in Norfolk, made in 1776 ; upwards of 3,000 
by Mr. J. Mace, at Ashford, in Kent ; 8,000 by John 
Sneyd, Esq. at Belmont, in Staffordshire, planted about 
the year 1785 ; and six acres in Carlton Forest, by Mr. 
J. Cowlishaw, planted with above 1,800 of these trees, 
with larch, ash, &c. 

Evelyn, speaking of the fruit, observes, that " We give 
that fruit to our swine in England which is among the 
delicacies of princes in other countries ; and being of the 
large nut kind, is a lusty and masculine food for rustics 
at all times, and of better nourishment for husbandmen 
than cole and rusty bacon, yea or beans to boot, instead of 
which, they boil them in Italy with their bacon ; and in 
Virgil's time they ate them with milk and cheese : 

' Sunt nobis mitia poma, 

Castanese molles, et pressi copia lactis.' 

Eclogue i. 

' Chestnuts, and curds and cream shall be our fare.' 
" Again : in the second pastoral, he says — 

' Ipse ego cana legam tenera lanugine mala;, 
Castaneasque nuces, mea quas Amaryllis amabat, 
Addam cerea pruna ; et honos erit huic quoque porno.' 

" Rendered by Dry den — 

' Myself will search our planted grounds at home, 
Eor downy peaches and the glossy plum ; 
And thrash the chestnuts in the neighbouring grove. 
Such as my Amaryllis used to love.' 

H 2 



100 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



" Our swine do not perhaps often feed on Chestnuts 
now, though those of British growth are still at their mercy 
sometimes; but more frequently of deer. Ben Jonson 
speaks of 

' A chestnutj whilk hath larded many a swine.' 

" The best tables in France and Italy make them a 
service, eating them with salt, in wdne or juice of lemon 
and sugar, being first roasted in the embers ; and doubt- 
less we might propagate their use among our common 
people, being a food so cheap and so lasting. In Italy 
they boil them in wine, and then smoke them a little; 
these they call anseri or geese, I know not why : those 
of Piedmont add fennel and nutmeg to their w^ne, but 
first they peel them. Others macerate them in rose- 
water. Bread of the flour is exceedingly nutritive ; it is 
a robust food, and makes women Avell-complexioned, as 
I have read in a good author. They also make fritters 
of Chestnut flour, which they wet with rose-water, and 
sprinkle with grated parmigiano, and so fry them in 
fresh butter for a delicate. How we here use Chestnuts, 
in stewed meats and beatille pies, our French cooks 
teach us; and this is in truth their very best use, and 
very commendable." 

Thunberg tells us, that at the Cape of Good Hope 
they are eaten by way of dessert, roasted with butter *. 

Eaten raw, or in bread, they are not considered very 
easy of digestion. The best way to preserve them is in 
earthen vessels, in a cold place, or in dry sand. 

The leaves are a good litter for cattle, and make good 
mattresses to lie on ; but they make a crackling noise w^hen 
a person turns upon them, whence they are called in 

* Thunberg's Travels, vol. ii. p. 131. 



CHESTNUT TREE. 101 

France lits dc pcniimncnt. It is said that a decoction 
of the rind of this tree will dye hair of a beautiful golden 
colour. 

The Chestnut being so beautiful a tree, would pro- 
bably be much noticed by the Spanish poets, in whose 
country it grows so abundantly : it is but shghtly men- 
tioned in the poems of Garcilasso, lately produced in an 
English di'ess, by Mr. WifFen : 

O fleet-foot Oreads of the hills ! who go 
Chasing through chestnut groves the hart and roe. 
Leave wounding animals, draw near and scan 
The last convulsions of a wounded man." 

P. 217. 

Dallaway, in his Constantinople,'" speaks of its effect in 
landscape ; in speaking of the view from Brusa, he says — 

" This yiew is peculiar and beautiful, from the sudden 
eleyation of the back-ground, the variety of situation in 
which the houses are clustered, and the rich verdure of 
the Chestnut groves, and enclosures of v. hite mulberry for 
the silk- worms, which embellish the environs for a certain 
distance with most luxuriant vegetation."" 

The author of a popular modern novel more than 
once adverts to the beautiful foliage of the Chestnut, 
especially as contrasted with trees of different hues : 

" The dehcate Chestnut woods, which last dai'e en- 
counter the blasts of spring, whose tender leaves do not 
expand until they may become a shelter for the swallow, 
and wliich first hear the voice of the tyrant Libeccio. as 
he comes all cx)nquering from the west, had already 
changed their hues, and shone yellow and red amidst the 
sea-green foliage of the olive, the darker but light boughs 
of the cork-trees, and the deep and heavy masses of ilexes 
and pines."' 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Chestnuts are mostly grafted, when cultivated for the 
sake of their fruit. There is a passage on this subject 
in Virgil, which has occasioned much dispute among the 
learned : — 

Et steriies piatani raalos gessere valentes ; 

Castaneae fagus, ornusque incanuit albo 

Flore piri." Qg^^g^ -^^ 

Some suppose this passage to signify that the beech 
has been grafted on the Chestnut : others considering it 
an absurdity to graft a tree upon one of superior value, 
read it differently, and beheve it to mean, that the 
Chestnut was grafted on the beech. Upon which Mar- 
tyn observes, that he sees no reason to reject the first, 
which is the common reading, since the fruit of the 
Chestnut-tree was very Kttle esteemed in VirgiFs time. 
Pliny wonders that nature should take such care of them 
as to defend them with a prickly husk, whereas the mast 
of the beech was reckoned a sweet nut ; and men are said 
to have been sustained by it on a siege. The tree itself, 
too, Avas held in high veneration, and vessels made of it 
were used in the Roman sacrifices*. 

In another passage the Roman poet alludes to its lofty 
growth. In speaking of the different manner in which 
trees are raised, he says — 

" Pars autem posito surgunt de semine : ut altse 
CastanesBj nemorumque Jovi qufe maxima frondet 
iEsculus — " 

Georgic ii. 

" Some are produced by seeds ; as the lofty chestnuts^ and the 
esculus, AV'hich has the largest leaves of all the groves of Jupiter." 

Martyn's Translation. 



Sse Martyn's Virgil. 



CHESTNUT TliEE. 



103 



Roasted Chestnuts formerly accompanied the wassail- 
bowl in the celebration of Christmas festivals. 

Remember us in cups full crowned, 

And let our city health go round. 

Quite through the young maids and the men. 

To the ninth number, if not ten ; 

Until the fired chestnuts leap 

For joy to see the fruits ye reap 

From the plump chalice, and the cup 

That tempts till it be tossed up." 

Herrick. 

Milton, writing on the death of his friend Deodati, 
says — 

In whom shall I confide ? whose counsel find 

A balmy medicine for my troubled mind ? 

Or whose discourse, with innocent delight 

Shall fill me now, and cheat the wintry night — 

While hisses on my hearth the pulpy pear. 

And blackening chestnuts start and crackle there, 

^V^hile storms abroad the dreary meadows whelm. 

And the wind thunders through the neighbouring elm ?" 



CORNEL TREE. 



CORNUS. 

CAPRIFOLIACEff. TETBANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 

Cornus, from cotmu,a horn, on account of the horny hardness of 
the fruit : it is familiarly called Cornel-tree, and Dogwood-tree. — 
French, cornouiller ; Italian, corniolo, the fruit cornole. 

The Cornus mascula, or male Cornel, familiarly called 
the Cornelian Cherry, in its wild state seldom exceeds 
five feet in stature ; but when cultivated, will grow as 
high as eighteen or twenty feet. It has yellow blossoms, 
which appear before the leaves, growing in umbels. The 
leaves grow opposite in pairs ; the fruit is of the size and 
form of a small olive, and of a bright scarlet colour ; but 
the greater part of the flowers drop off without producing 
fruit. 

In mild seasons, the blossoms v/ill begin to open early 
in February ; they are not handsome, but as they appear 
early, are abundant, and produce a handsome fruit, the 
tree deserves a place in the shrubbery. Formerly it was 
cultivated for the use of its fruit, which was used for 
tarts, and kept in the form of a conserve in the apothe- 
caries' shops. " The preserved and pickled cherries," 
says Evelyn, " are most refreshing, an excellent condi- 
ment, and do also well in tarts."" He likewise observes, 
that the wood is much commended for its durableness in 
wheel work, for pins and wedges, &c. in v/hich it exceeds 
the hardest iron ; and relates what he very justly terms 
an odd notion of another author : " Though Matthiolus 



CORNEL TREE. 



105 



affirms it, upon his own knowledge and experience, that 
one who has been bitten by a mad dog, if in a year after 
he handle the wood of this tree till it grow warm, re- 
lapses again into his former distemper.'" 

Such a tale may probably have originated in the notion 
that no one having been bitten by a mad dog could sur- 
vive a year : just as nurses will tell children that they 
may catch a swallow if they can put a little salt upon its 
tail ; or as a sailor will jocosely observe of a desolate and 
barren shore, that it is death by law to fell a tree there, 
simply because there are none to fell. 

This Cornel is a native of France, Switzerland, Car- 
niola. Piedmont, Germany, Russia, &c. Tournefort 
found both this and the female Cornel in the Levant. It 
was cultivated by Gerarde in 1596. He says, " It 
groweth not wild in England, but yet there be sundry 
trees of them growing in the gardens of such as love rare 
and dainty plaints : whereof I have a tree or two in my 
garden."' 

It was formerly called the Cornelia, or Long Cherry- 
tree, but these names are now seldom used. 

The Cornus sanguinea, or Common Dogwood, by 
some called the female Cornel-tree, grows in the hedges, 
in most parts of Europe, especially where the soil is 
chalky. It flowers in June, and the berries ripen in 
August. This bears a variety of names in different parts 
of our country ; as Hound's-tree, Hound's-berry tree. 
Dog-berry tree; Prickwood, from its use in making 
skewers ; and Gat en, Gatten, or Gater tree. Chaucer 
speaks of the fruit by the name of Gaitres-berries. 

It takes the specific name sanguinea from the vivid 
red colour of the young shoots. By old authors it is 
termed Virga sanguinea^ Bloody-rod. The French 



106 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



call it Cornouilier Sauvage, or Sanguin; the Italians, 
Sanguine, or Sanguinello. 

This Cornel is about the same height as the former 
species, when that grows wild : the blossoms are of a 
greenish white colour ; the fruit dark purple. 

The fruit of this tree is very similar to the buckthorn^ 
berries sold in the markets, and has been sometimes pur- 
chased in mistake. It may be easily distinguished by 
opening one of the berries ; that of the Cornel containing 
but one stone, the buckthorn-berry four. The latter, 
too, gives a green stain to paper, and the juice of the 
dogberry stains purple. 

The wood, like that of the male Cornel, is noted for 
compactness, and is used for various rustic instruments. 
Cornel wood is considered the best for butchers' skewers. 
In some countries, an oil for lamps is obtained from the 
berries, by boihng them in water and pressing them. 

The Cornus llorida, or Great-flowered Dogwood, seldom 
exceeds eight feet in height. It does not produce fruit 
in this country, and blossoms but sparely ; it is never- 
theless very hardy, and well-clothed with large leaves. 

There is a variety with rose-coloured blossoms, which 
was found in Virginia, of which it is said, that when the 
blossom first breaks forth, which is early in March, it is 
not so wide as a sixpence, but that it gradually increases 
to the size of a man's hand; being six weeks in coming 
to its full size. The berries are bright red, the size of 
large haws, and grow four or five together in a cluster : 
they are very bitter, and birds will not eat them but in 
times of dearth. The wood is white, close and hard 
like that of box. 

This Cornel is a great ornament to die woods in Ame- 
rica, flowering very early in the spring, and keeping the 



CORNEL TREE. 



107 



berries on (thanks to their bitterness !) all the winter. 
There are several other American species, among which, 
the handsomest is the Blue-berried, Cornus sericea, 
which was cultivated by Mr. Miller, in 1759. The 
shoots are of a fine red colour in the winter ; and in sum- 
mer, the large leaves, white on the under side, and the 
bunches of white flowers which terminate every branch, 
are very handsome. In the autumn, it is adorned with 
bunches of ripe blue berries. 

There is a sm.all species, commonly called the Herba- 
ceous Dogwood, Cornus Suecica, by some the Dwarf 
Honeysuckle, v/hich is a very elegant plant, not more 
than six inches high ; the berries are eatable, and have 
a sweet watery taste, very agreeable to children. The 
Highlanders suppose them to create an appetite, whence 
the Erse name of Lus-a-chrasis, Plant of Gluttony. 

It is common by the sides of rivulets in the Highlands 
of Scotland, in the north of England, and many of the 
northern parts of Europe, but is very difficult to pre- 
serve in gardens. 

Cornel wood was formerly used for javehns : 

" Bona bello 

Cornus " Georg. ii. 

Says Virgil — " Cornel, good in war.'^ 

" Three henchmen were for every knight assigned_, 
All in rich livery clad, and of a kind ; 
White velvet, but unshorn, for cloaks they wore. 
And each within his hand a truncheon bore ; 
The foremost held a helm of rare device, 
A prince's ransom would not pay the price ; 
The second bore the buckler of his knight ; 
The third of cornel wood, a spear upright. 
Headed with piercing steel, and polished bright." 

Dkyden's Floiver and Leaf. 



108 



SYLVAX SKETCHES. 



A writer of our own time represents 
" Faunus fast asleep 



Upon whose outstretched arm^ whose hand 
Loosely touched his cornel spear. 
His cheek was pillowed ; flushed, and tanned 
^Vith sports of sylvan cheer." 

Amarynthus. 

Homer mentions the Cornel as affording a coarse food, 
scattered to the companions of Ulysses, by Circe, after 
slie had transformed them into hogs : — 

Meantime the goddess in disdain bestows 

The mast and acorn, (brutal food !) and strows 

The fruit of cornel, as they feast around." 

Odyssey, book x. 

Virgil, also, speaks of the Cornel-berry : Ach^menides, 
one of the follow^ers of Ulysses, whom the poet (in con- 
tradiction of Homer) supposes to have been left on the 
coast of Sicily, in the hurry of escape from the Cyclops, 
relating his adventures to Eneas and Anchises, says — 

Victum infelicem, baccas, lapidosaque corna 
Dant rami, et vulsis pascunt radicibus herbas." 

^neid. iii. 

Cornels, and savage berries of the wood. 

And roots and herbs, have been my meagre food." 

Captain Franklin informs us that bears eat the Cornel 
berries, and fatten on them ; whence they are named by 
the Crees Musqua jmina, Bear-berries*. 

* Journey to the Polar Shores. 



CYPRESS TREE. 



CUPRESSUS. 

cupresside.t;. moncecia monadelphia. 

French, cypres ; Italian, cipresso. 

The Deciduous Cypress, Cupressus disticha^ is a na- 
tive of America, where it grows in watery places to a 
prodigious height and bulk. It is very hardy with re- 
spect to cold, but if planted in too dry a soil, will neither 
grow freely nor produce much fruit. John Tradescant, 
who first introduced this tree from Virginia, had one in 
his garden at South Lambeth, which is thirty feet high, 
and in good health and vigour, although it was not only 
neglected, but a number of nails had been driven into 
the trunk to fasten lines for drying linen. 

Mr. Drummond, in his First Steps to Botany, lately 
published, gives this tree as an instance of a curious freak 
of nature. He quotes the following passage from Bar- 
tramps Travels : — 

" It stands'" (this tree, which in America is called the 
White Cedar) " in the first order of North American 
trees. Its majestic stature is surprising ; we are struck 
wath a kind of awe at beholding the stateliness of the 
trunk, hfting its cumbrous top towards the skies, and 
casting a wide shade upon the ground, — as a dark inter- 
vening cloud which for a time obscures the rays of the 
sun. The dehcacy of its colour, and texture of its leaves, 
exceed every thing in vegetation. It generally grows in 
the water, or in low flat lands, near the banks of great 



110 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



rivers and lakes, that are covered great part of the year 
with two or three feet depth of water ; and four or five feet 
higher up, is greatly enlarged by prodigious buttresses 
or pilasters, which in full grown trees project on every 
side to such a distance, that several men might easily 
hide themselves in the hollows between. Each pilaster 
terminates under ground in a very large strong serpen- 
tine root, which strikes off, and branches every way just 
under the surface of the earth. From the top of the 
buttresses, the tree, "as it were, takes another beginning, 
forming a grand straight column, eighty or ninety feet 
high ; wlien it divides every way around into an extensive 
flat horizontal top like an umbrella, where the eagles 
have their secure nests, and cranes and storks their tem- 
porary resting places : and what adds to the magnificence 
of their appearance, is the streams of long moss that hang 
from the lofty limbs, and float in the winds. This is 
their majestic appearance when standing alone in large 
rice plantations, or thinly planted on the banks of great 
rivers.^' 

The Arbor Vitae-leaved Cypress (C^pt^essus thyoides), 
or as some call it, the White Cedar, is also an American, 
and grows to a considerable size, though with us it seldom 
exceeds fifteen feet ; or if raised from cuttings, ten feet. 
Loureiro says, that in China or Cochin China, although 
a native of those places, it does not grow higher than 
eight feet. The branches are numerous, and stand 
two ways, naturally forming themselves into regular 
heads ; the leaves are evergreen, flat, sharp, very short, 
and imbricated : the fruit is blue, and not larger than 
that of the juniper. 

This tree requires eighty years^ growth from the seed, 
before it is fit for timber; and as the number of these 



CYPRESS TREE. 



Ill 



trees has been much reduced, IMiller observes, that 
posterity will probably feel the want of this useful tree 
in America. It makes good canoes, hoops, and other 
coopers' ware; it is much esteemed for shingles, and 
many houses are built with it. 

The Cypress, the Evergreen Cypress, Cupi-essiis sem- 
pervirens^ is a native of the Le\ant, Candia, Rhodes, 
Malta, Apulia, some parts of the Russian empire, China, 
&c. — It was cultivated in this country in 1551 : Gerarde 
mentions it as growing " at Sion, a place near London, 
sometime a house of nuns f"* at Greenwich, and at Hamp- 
stead, in the garden of Mr. Waide, one of the clerks of 
his Majesty's privy council. 

It is said there are still growing, in the gardens of a 
palace in Granada, several fine lofty Cypresses, that were 
large trees in the reign of Andeh the last Moorish king, 
three centuries ago. These trees are called Los Cypresses 
de la Regjia Sultana, the Cypresses of the reigning Sul- 
tana, from that princess having been falsely accused of 
entertaining her lover Abencerrage under their shadow. 

Pliny says, that in his time there were trees of this 
kind in Rome more ancient than Rome itself. There 
are still many fine Cypresses in modem Rome, though 
not of such high antiquity ; and it has been observed, 
that no tree blends so well with stone buildings. 

" This tree,'' says Miller, " is recommended by many 
learned authors for the improvement of the air, and as a 
specific for the lungs, as sending forth quantities of aro- 
matic and balsamic scents ; wherefore many of the ancient 
physicians of the Eastern countries used to send their 
patients who were troubled with weak lungs to the 
island of Candia, which at that time abounded with these 
trees." 



112 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



" However that may be,'^ observes Martyn, " the 
Cypress is valuable on account of its wood, which is 
of a dusky or brownish red colour ; has a sweet smell, 
and, on account of its hardness, is fit for a variety of 
purposes."" 

On account of its durability, Plato had the laws en- 
graved on Cypress tablets, in preference to brass itself ; 
and Pliny relates, that the statue of Jupiter in the 
Capitol, made of this wood in the year of Rome 661, 
was sound in his time. 

" What the uses of this timber are,^' says Evelyn, 
" for chests and other utensils, harps, and divers other 
musical instruments (it being a sonorous wood, and 
therefore employed for organ-pipes, as heretofore for 
supporters of vines, poles and planks, resisting the worm, 
moth, and all putrefaction, to eternity), the Venetians 
sufficiently understood, who did every twentieth year, 
and oftener (the Romans every thirteenth), make a con- 
siderable revenue of it out of Candy : and certainly a 
very gainful commodity it was, when the fell of a Cu- 
pressetum (plantation of Cypresses) was heretofore re- 
puted a good daughter's portion, and the plantation itself 
called Dos filics. But there was in Candy a vast wood 
of these trees belonging to the republic, by malice or 
accident (or perhaps by solar heat, as were many woods 
seventy-four years after, even here in England) set on 
fire : which beginning anno 1400, continued burning for 
seven years before it could be extinguished, being fed 
for so long a space by the unctuous nature of the timber, 
of which there Vv^ere to be seen at Venice planks of above 
four feet in breadth. And formerly the valves of St. 
Peter's Church were formed of this material, which lasted 
from the great Constantine to Pope Eugenius the Fourth's 



CYPRESS TREE. 



113 



time (eleven hundred years), and then were found as 
fresh and entire as if they had been new. But this pope 
would needs change them for gates of brass, which were 
cast by the famous Antonio Philarete ; not, in my opi- 
nion, so venerable as those of Cypress. It was in coffins 
of this material that (as Thucydides tells us) the Athe- 
nians used to bury their heroes ; and the mummy-chests 
brought with those condited bodies out of Egypt are 
made of this material, which it is probable may have lain 
in those dry and sandy cryptiE many thousand years.'' 

The bridge built by Semiramis over the Euphrates 
was of Cypress-wood, and it is still used in Candia and 
Malta for building. 

Evelyn remarks, that the very chips are frequently 
used to flavour rich wines; that the cones or chips, 
burned, will destroy or drive away moths, gnats, and 
flies ; and that it yields a gum not much inferior to mas- 
tick. He desires his readers not to " despair of the 
resurrection of a Cypress subverted by the wind, for 
some have redressed themselves, and one (as Tiphilinus 
mentions) rose the very next day ; which happening 
about the reign of the Emperor Vespasian, was esteemed 
an happy omen.'' ' 

The mountain-cypress thus, that firmly stood 
From age to age, the empress of the wood. 
By some strong whirlwind's sudden blast declined. 
Bends arching down, and nods before the wind : 
The deep roots tremble till the gust blows o'er. 
And then she rises stately as before." 

Harte's Statius, 

This author observes, that the durability of this 
timber has been celebrated by Vitruvius and Martial, 
and that it is considered no less beautiful than durable, 



114 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



" especially the roots of the v. ilder sort : incomparable 
for its crisped undulations/' 

The wild Cypress here mentioned was used among 
the great in Rome for beds and tables : it was esteemed 
for the spots and figures in the wood, from which the 
tables were called Menscd Tigrince et Pantlicrince. With 
them it bore the name of Citron ; and is mentioned by 
that name in Lucan's Pharsalia : 

" On every side proud palaces arise. 
And lavish gold each common use supplies. 
Their father's frugal tables stand abhorred, 
And Asia now and Afric are explored. 
For high-priced dainties, and the citron board." 

Rowe's Lucan, book i. 

In old times the Cypress was held sacred to Pluto 
and Proserpine ; and was used at funerals, especially of 
persons of fashion : 

Et non plebeios luctus testata cupressus — " 

Book iii. 

says Lucan ; — which Rowe thus translates : 

^' The eypress by the noble mourner worn." 

It was either placed before the house, or in the ves- 
tibule, that no person about to perform any sacred rites 
might enter a place polluted with a dead body. It has 
been said that the Cypress was selected on these melan- 
choly occasions, because this tree, being once cut do\m, 
never springs up again. Evehm justly remarks, that in 
this view it would be an improper emblem in a Cliristian 
country. " The use of evergreens," says he, " is yet 
not uncommon among us ; but they are supposed to be 
significant of immortahty, at the same time that their 



CYPPvEss trep:. 



115 



balsamic scent guards the attendants against the infec- 
tion to be apprehended from a putrid body."' 

And it is worthy of notice, that most of the trees and 
plants more particularly used on these occasions are fra- 
grant ; as the tree in question, the wood of which has a 
sweet and powerful scent ; rosemary, basil, vervain, as- 
phodel, &c. — The yew has a powerful scent rather than 
a sweet one. 

The Cypress is often praised for its sweet odour : 

" r And a brook 

Flowing from out a little gravelly nook 
Keeps green the laurel and the myrtle trees 
And odorous cypresses." 

HuxT, from Theocritus. 

Homer speaks of its fragrance in his description of the 
cave of Calypso, in the fifth book of the Odyssey. 

Virgil repeatedly introduces the Cypress at the funeral 
rites of his heroes ; as at that of Misenus : 

Ingentem struxere pyram : cui frondibus atris 
Intexunt latera, et ferales ante cupressos 
Constituuntj decorantque super fulgentibus armis." 

ExEiD, book vi. 

" First from the groun 1 a lofty pile they rear 
Of pitch-trees, oaks, and pines, and unctuous fir : 
The fabrick's front with cypress-twigs they strew, 
And stick the sides with boughs of baleful yew. 
The topmost part his glittering arms adorn — " 

Dryden's Translation. 

Tasso uses it on a similar occasion : 

Sorse a pari col sole, ed egli stesso 

Seguir la porapa funeral poi voile 

A Dudon d'odorifero cipresso 

Coraposto hanno un sepolcro a pie d'un colle 



116 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Non iunge agli steccati, e sovra ad esso 
Un' altissima palma i rami estoUe. 
Or qui fu posto ; e i sacerdoti intanto 
Quiete all' alma gli pregar col canto." 

Canto iii. st. 72- 

Fairfax's translation of this stanza is rather free : 

Up with the lark the sorrowing Duke arose, 

A mourner- chief at Dudon's burial : 

Of cypress sad a pile his friends compose 

Under a hill o'ergrown with cedars tall : 

Beside the hearse a fruitful palm-tree grows 

(Ennobled since by this great funeral), 

Where Dudon's corpse they softly laid in giound. 

The priests sang hymns, the soldiers wept around.'' 

Statius makes the same use of it *. 
In the Italian Arcadia, the shepherd says to his 
friend — 

" Voi userete in me 11 pietoso ufficiO;, 
E fra cipressi mi farete un tumulo." 

You shall perform for me the last pious office, and shall make 
me a tomb among cypresses. 

Spenser describes it as emblematical of death ; 

And the sweet cypress, sign of deadly bale." 

Virgil's Gnat. 

Again, in his lamentation for the death of Sir Philip 
Sidney : 

Instead of girlond, wear sad cypress now. 
And bitter elder, broken from the bough." 

It is doubtless this tree to which the poet refers in 
another passage in the same poem : 

" The tree that coffins doth adorn. 
With stately height threatening the sky." 

* See the Sixth Book, translated by Harte. 



CYPRESS TREE. 



117 



He places it in the garden of Proserpine : 

" There mournful cypress grew in greatest store. 
And trees of bitter gall, and heben sad." 

Fairie Queene, book ii. 

The Earl of Suffolk, in calling down curses on his 
enemies, would have — 

" Their sweetest shade a grove of cypress-trees." 

King Henry the Sixth, Part II. 

It is designated by Tasso as 

" The funeral cypress." 

Sir Walter Scott's song is well known : 

O lady, twine no wreath for me. 
Or twine it of the cypress-tree." 

Melancholy and death seem to be associated with the 
Cypress-tree in all countries ; Thunberg says — 

" The churches of all the different religious sects are in general 
built upon the most eligible spots, both in the villages and in the 
towns; the roads leading to them likewise are frequently adorned 
with alleys of cypress-trees*." 

Dallaway, in his " Constantinople," observes, that the 
entrance into Smyrna is through spacious cemeteries and 
luxuriant cypress-groves. 

But here the Roman custom seems to be reversed ; foi' 
the author remarks that 

" the humbler graves are marked by cypresses at the 

head and feet, from which custom extensive groves have grown, 
and are seen in every stage of vegetation." 

The tombs of persons of distinction are marked by 
ornamented stones, and flowers of the choicest kinds. 



Thunberg's Travels iii Japan. 



118 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Dallaway represents the Seraglio of Constantinople as 
" encircled with embattled walls, with its domes and 
kiosques clustered in splendid confusion, and intermixed 
with gigantic Cypresses, rising in the sea from an ele- 
vation which nature seems to have intended for the seat 
of dominion over the whole world.'" 

Lord Byron describes 

" The cypress saddening by the sacred mosque." 

Corsair. 

Again, he says, speaking of the Simoom : 

Beneath whose widely wasting breath 
The very cypress droops to death ; 
Dark tree ! still sad when others' grief is fled. 
The only constant mourner o'er the dead." 

Giaour. 

Browne, it seems, was of a different opinion : 

'Tis not a cypresse bough, a count'nance sad, 

A mourning garment, wailing elegie, 
A standing herse in sable vesture clad, 
A toombe built to his name's eternitie. 
Although the shepherds all should strive 

By yearly obsequies, 
And vow to keep thy fame alive 
In spight of destinies ; 
That can suppresse my griefe . 

All these and more may be, 
\^et all in vain to recompence 
My greatest loss of thee. 

Cypresse may fade, the countenance be changed; 

A garment rot, an elegie forgotten, 
A herse 'mongst irreligious rites be ranged, 

A toombe pliickt down, or els through age be rotten; 



CYPRESS TREE. 



119 



All things th' uiipartial hand of fate 

Can rase out with a thought : 
These have a several fixed date. 
Which ended, turne to nought. 
Yet shall my truest cause 
Of sorrow firmly stay, 
When these effects the wings of time 
Shall fanne and sweepe away." 

W. Browne's Shepherd's Pipe. 

Montgomery would rather associate more pleasing 
ideas with the memory of a departed friend : 

To some warm heart the poorest dust was dear. 

From some kind eye the meanest claimed a tear ; 

And oft' the living, by affection led^ 

Were v/ont to walk in spirit with their dead. 

Where no dark cypress cast a doleful gloom. 

No blighting yew shed poison o'er the tomb. 

But, white and red with intermingUng flowers : 

Green myrtle fenced it, and beyond their bound, 

Ran the clear rill with ever murmuring sound. 

'Twas not a scene for grief to nourish care. 

It breathed of hope, and moved the heart to prayer." 

WorU before the Flood. 

The origin of the Cypress-tree, and the reason of its 
association with ideas of gloom and death, is mentioned 
by Ovid : 

" Dear to the god, who awes, yet charms the throng. 
Who strings the bow for war, the harp for song. 
Thither, a youth of yore, but now a shade. 
Small by degrees, the mournful cypress strayed. 

A giant-stag once coursed Carthoea's glades. 
Admired, nay worshipped, by the sylvan maids : 
Antlers of gold rose glittering on his head. 
Round his sleek throat a chain of jewels spread 
Fell on his shoulder ; fixed by leathern ties, 
A ball of silver played between his eyes. 



SYLVAN SKETCHES.. 



And brazen drops^ suspended from the ear^ 

Beamed on the hollow temples of the deer. 

His timorous nature cast aside, he ran 

Oft, fond and fearless, to the haunts of man ; 

And proffered oft, with not a doubt to cheek. 

E'en to a stranger's patting hand, his neck. 

Beloved of all, he roamed: but whose soft care. 

Fond Cyparissus, could with thine compare ? 

Loveliest of Cea's sons, 'twas thine to lead 

The stag, light-bounding, to some greener mead^ 

Or clearer spring ; delighted, to adorn 

With wreaths of blooming flowers each polished horn ; 

Or mount his back, and guide, with purple rein 

Now here, now there, thy playmate o'er the plain. 

It chanced that Sol in Cancer's hot embrace. 
Blazed in meridian fervor o'er the place : 
Down lay the stag beneath a cooling shade. 
Supine and panting on the grassy glade. 
Thither young Cyparissus strays ; his spear 
Is hurled,, it flies, it strikes the unknown deer ; 
But when he views his darling weltering there. 
How longs the boy the death he dealt to share 
The radiant god thus strives to yield relief 

' The loss is trivial, trivial be the grief; 
For what thou hast done thy tears have well atoned ; 
Then groan no more :' yet still the stripling groaned ; 
And prayed of Heaven, his last request, to doom 
His life to waste in everlasting gloom. 
When, lost in tears, the blood his veins forsakes; 
His every limb a grassy hue partakes ; 
His flowing tresses, stiff and bushy grown. 
Point to the stars, and taper to a cone. 
Now Phoebus thus : ' Ah ! youth, beloved in vain. 
Long shall thy boughs the gloom I feel retain : 
Henceforth, when mourners grieve, their grief to share^ 
Emblem of woe, the cypress shall be there." ' 

Dr. Orgeii's Translation.- 



CYPRESS TREE. 



121 



Cowley refers to this poetical origin of the tree, in his 
lines on the death of Mrs. Hervey : 

" Instead of bays, crown with sad cypress me. 
Cypress which tombs doth beautify : 
Not Phoebus grieved so much as I, 
For him who first was made that mournful tree." 

Sannazaro alludes to it also : 

Ma fra tutti nel mezzo, presso un chiaro fonte, sorge' verso il 
cielo un dritto cipresso, veracissimo imitatore delle alte mete, nel 
quale non che Ciparisso, ma (se dir conviensi) esso Apollo non si 
sdegnarebbe essere trasfigurato." 

Arcadia. 

But in the midst of all, near a clear fountain, rose towards heaven 
a straight cypress, lofty, pyramidal ; to such a tree, not Cyparissus 
only, but if we so may speak, Apollo's self, need not disdain to be 
transformed. 

Tasso describes the form of its growth : 

Alfine un largo spazio in forma scorge 
D'anfiteatro, e non e pianta in esso 
Salvo che nel suo mezzo altero sorge 
Quasi eccelsa piramide, un cipresso." 

At length a spacious valley he descried. 
In which grew nothing but a cypress- tree. 
That, in the centre, rose with stately pride. 
Of form pyramidal : 

Mr. Shelley gives a grand and striking picture of the 
Cypress-tree : 

" Thence to a lonely dwelHng, where the shore 
Is shadowed with steep rocks, and cypresses 
Cleave with their dark green cones the silent skies^. 
And with their shadows the clear depths below," 



122 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Dallaway, speaking of the Cypress-trees about Con- 
stantinople, observes, that no accurate judgment of them 
can be formed, from " the shrubs called Cypresses 
which the climate of England allows us to rear.'"' He 
says, they are seldom seen there in the forests, but that 
in the cemeteries and the environs of palaces it is 
common to see them six feet in circumference, " with a 
height proportioned to a pyramidal form." 

This does not, however, give a very correct idea of 
the height, since it is not the stem of the tree, but the 
outline of the branches, which takes a pyramidal form. 
W. Browne expresses it very curiously : 

Cypresses that like piramides runne topping. 
And hurt the least of any by their dropping." 

liomer refers to its use in building : 

Next came Ulysses lowly at the door. 
A figure miserable, old, and poor. 
In squalid vests, with many a gaping rent, 
Propt on a staff, and trembling as he went. 
Then resting on the threshold of the gate. 
Against a cypress-pillar leaned his weight, 
(Smoothed by the workmen to a polished plane) 
The thoughtful son beheld, and called his swain," 

Pope's Translation of the Odyssey, book xvii. 

As also does Virgil ; speaking of the barren woods 
on Mount Caucasus, he says, even these afford useful 
timber; the pine for ships, cedars and cypresses for 
houses : 

" Navigiis pinos, domibus cedrumque cupressosque." 

Georgic ii. 



CYPRESS TREE. 



123 



The Cypress lives to a great age, and some have grown 
to an enormous bulk. EvehTi speaks of one that grew 
in Persia, of wliich the stem was as large as five men 
could encompass : it was supposed to be two thousand 
five hundred years old. 



ELDER. 



SAMBUCUS. 

CAl-IlIFOLIACE^. PENTANDllIA TRIGYNIA, 

French, sureau ; Italian, sambuco. 

The common Elder, Sambucus oiigra^ is a bushy tree, 
growing to a height of about sixteen feet, much branched, 
and covered with a smooth grey bark when young, which 
afterwards becomes rough on the trunk and older 
branches. The flowers are of a mellow creamy white, 
with a faint sweet smell, especially when di'ied ; the 
berries are globular, dark purple, mawkishly sweet ; their 
juice watery and red. The wood is hard and tough, 
and will take nearly as good a polish as box. 

This tree is a native of Britain, and many other parts 
of Europe, of Africa, of Japan, &c. In this country it 
grows abundantly in damp hedges and woods ; flowering 
in May and June. 

The whole plant has a narcotic smell, and it is not pru- 
dent to sleep under its shade, notwithstanding Thomson's 
recommendation : 

" — - — ^ When the sun 

Shakes from his noon-day throne the scattering clouds^ 

E'en shooting listless languor through the deeps^ 

Then seek the bank where flowering elders crowd ; 

Where, scattered wild, the lily of the vale 

Its balmy essence breathes, where cowslips hang 

The dewy head, where purple violtts lurk^ 

iv^ith ail ihe lowly children of the shade/' 



ELDER. 



The younger branches contam a great quantity of 
pith, which, being very Ught, is made into balls for elec- 
trical experiments. 

It has been said, that msects in general have so great a 
disHke to the Elder, that if turnips, cabbages, fruit-trees, 
or com, be whipped with branches of it, or if a gate 
stuck full of them be dra^n over the crops, no insects 
^vill attack them ; and that an infusion of the leaves is 
useful to sprinkle over such beds as the gardener may 
wish to preserve from small caterpillars. It is thought 
even to be sufficiently powerful to diive away the mole, if 
laid in his subterranean domains ; yet the Elder has its own 
aphis, and, according to Evelyn, a very troublesome one. 

The flowers are considered poisonous to turkeys, and 
the berries to poultry in general : cattle mostly refuse the 
Elder, sheep are fond of it, and it is supposed healthful 
for them. 

The wine made by housewives from the elder-berry is 
well kno^\^i, and by many persons esteemed, though some 
think it nauseous ; the juice is also used to colour raisin 
and other T^dnes, and to give a flavour to vinegar= 
EJder-flower water is frequently used in this country as 
a cooling lotion for the skin. The Russians and the 
missionaries at the Cape use an infusion of these flowers 
as a sudorific in colds*. 

" This tree,"' says Miller, " is as it were a whole maga- 
zine of physic to rustic practitioners ; nor is it quite 
neglected by more regular ones.'' Evelyn says, if the 
medicinal properties of the Elder, " leaves, bark and 
berries, were thoroughly knowm, I cannot tell what our 
countryman could ail, for which he might not fetch a 



* Latrobe's South Africa, p. 388. 



126 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



remedy from every hedge, either for sickness or wound. 
Yet,"" continues he, " I do not by any means commend 
the scent of it, which is noxious to the air ; and therefore, 
though I do not undertake that all things that sweeten 
the air are salubrious, nor all ill savours pernicious, yet, 
as not for its beauty, so neither for its smell, would I 
plant Elder near my habitation; since we learn from 
Biesius, that a certain house in Spain, being seated 
among many Elder-trees, diseased and killed almost all 
the inhabitants ; which, when at last they were grubbed 
up, became a ver}^ wholesome and healthy place.*" 

The scent is said to occasion violent head-aches to those 
who remain long near them. 

There is a variety of the Elder, with white berries, 
and another of which the ripe berries are red; of this 
last the leaves are eaten by the red-deer, and the berries 
by partridges, moor-game, &c. It is a native of Ger- 
many, Switzerland, Italy, and Siberia, and was cultivated 
here by Gerarde in 1596. 

The Canadian Elder, Samhucus Canadensis^ is smaller 
than the common species; the berries also are smaller, 
and less juicy. This flowers from June to August ; it 
was cultivated here by Miller in 1768. 

According to Mr. Hall, the Elder is called by the 
lower orders in Scotland the Arn-tree : " It is a fact,'' 
says he, " that from the bark of the Elder, or Arn-tree. 
as the common people call it, the juice of ragweed, and 
a few other productions of the country, the women in the 
interior, even at this day, as has been done in all ages, 
produce in their tartans, &c. as various and vivid colours 
as the dyers in England can do with their foreign drugs.'' 

Sannazaro celebrates the scent of the Elder-flowers; 
he speaks of the eve preceding the festival of Pales : 



ELDER TREE. 



127 



" Non ostante che i fronzuti Sambuchij, coverti di fiori odoriferi 
Tampia strada quasi tutta occupassero, il lume della kma era si 
chiaro, che non altrimenti che se giorno stato fosse ne mostrava il 
camino." 

Arcadia. 

Notwithstanding the branching Elders, covered with odoriferous 
flowers, spread their shade over the whole way, the light of the 
moon was so clear, that we saw our road as though it had been 
day. 

The Elder is sometimes coupled with the cypress, 
and other trees considered as emblematical of death or 
sorrow : 

" The water-nymphs, that wont with her to sing and dance. 
And for her girlond olive-branches bear. 
Now baleful boughs of cypress done advance : 
The muses that were wont green bays to wear. 
Now bringen bitter elder branches sere : 
The fatal sisters eke repent 
Her vital thread so soon was spent. 
O heavy herse ! 
Mourn now, my muse, now mourn with heavy cheer : 
O careful verse \" 

Spenser. 

The musical pipe called by the Itahans Sampogna 
was formerly made of Elder-wood ; and it is supposed 
that the name is corrupted from Sambuco. 

The Elder-tree is very common in the hedge-rows, and 
by brook-sides, even in the neighbourhood of London, 
adorning and enhvening them with their beautiful white 
blossom. Happily for the housewives who make wine of 
the berries, the temptation to gather, offered by the 
beauty of the flowers, is counteracted by their unpleasant 
odour ; and thev are left to perfect their fruit. 



128 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



— ■ — The elder there 

Its purple berries o'er the water bent^ 
Heavily hanging." 

SOUTHEY. 

The ripe berries are sometimes plucked and eaten by 
children, but they have a sickly flavour, which pretty 
generally ensures their safety. 

That most imaginative of all personages, tradition, 
reports that Judas hung himself upon an Elder-tree*. 

* See Every Man out of his Humour. — Ben Jonson's Works, 
voL ii. p. 148. 



ELM TREE. 



ULMUS. 

ULMACE^E. PENTANDRIA DIGYNIAc 

French, orme ; Italian , ulmo, olmo. 

The Common Elm, Ulmus campestris, is a native of 
Europe and Barbary ; it is generally supposed to be indi- 
genous of England, though Evelyn and some others doubt 
whether this really be the case ; all agree, however, that if 
not a native, it has been naturalized here even from the 
time of the Saxons. Dr. Hunter is convinced that it is 
a native of this country : " of which,"" he says, " there 
can be no stronger proof, than that there are nearly forty 
places in this kingdom which have their names from 
it; most of which are mentioned in Domesday-book. 
Chaucer hved at New Elm, in Oxfordshire ; Dryden at 
Nine Elms, near Lambeth : there is also Barn-Elms, &c." 

The bark of the young trees, or of the younger branches 
of old trees, is smooth, and very tough, and may be 
stripped off from the wood to a great length without 
breaking. As the trees grow old and large, the bark of 
the body cleaves or rends apart, which makes the surface 
rough. 

The blossoms, which are of a pale red colour, appear 
before the leaves, about the end of March, growing in 
clusters on the twigs : they are succeeded by flat seeds, 
of which the greater part fall away before, or imme- 
diately after, the leaves spring forth ; but a few will 
hang on nearly all the summer. The leaves are dark 
green, about two inches broad, and three long ; rough on 

K 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



both sides, indented about the edges ; having a nerve in 
the middle, and many smaller nerves growing from it. 

It is a quick growing tree : "in little more than forty 
years/' says Evelyn, " it will yield a load of timber."' 
Martyn mentions " an Elm planted by Henry the Fourth 
of France, which was still standing in the Luxembourg 
Gardens in Paris when the Revolution broke out : but 
whether it has survived that event,'" continues he, " I am 
unable to say. This great monarch's famous contempo- 
rary, queen Elizabeth, is said to have planted an Elm 
with her own hand at Chelsea, where her father had a 
palace, in which she was brought up when an infant. It 
went always by her name, and I remember it a stately 
flourishing tree, except that the top was decayed. It 
stood at the upper end of Church-lane, near where the 
turnpike now is, and was a boundary of the parish on 
the north side. It was felled, to the great regret of the 
neighbourhood, on the 11th of November 1745, and sold 
for a guinea, by Sir Hans Sloane, Bart, lord of the 
manor. It was thirteen feet in circumference at the bot- 
tom, and six feet six inches at the height of forty-four 
feet : the height was an hundred and ten, of which fif- 
teen feet at the top were decayed ; the tree having suf- 
fered in the hard frost in 1739-40*." Another Elm was 
planted in its place, which bids fair, if it does not meet 
with any accident, to rival its predecessor. 

In the middle of the last century an Elm was standing 
at Charlton, in Kent, about which Horn Fair was kept ; 
the boughs spread to a distance of eight yards on every 
side, although the trunk was not more than a foot in 
diameter : this is now cut down, and a young tree planted 

* See Martyn's edition of Miller's Dictionary. 



ELM TREE. 



131 



in its stead. Some Elms at Fulham were planted in the 
time of Edward the Sixth, and one at Richmond is said 
to have been planted by a courtier of King Henry the 
Seventh, when he kept his court there : this last is still 
in its prime. 

One of Sir Francis Bacon's trees in Gray's-Inn Walks, 
planted in 1600, was felled, upon a suspected decay, in 
1720 or 1726, and was then above twelve feet round. 

Mr. Coxe, in his account of Monmouthshire, mentions 
an ancient Elm at Raglan Castle, twenty-eight feet five 
inches in circumference near the root. Some of the finest 
trees of the kind are said to grow in the Vale of Glouces- 
ter ; and the finest Elm in the vale stands in the road 
between Cheltenham and Tewksbury, very near to the 
Boddington Oak. It is known by the name of PifFe's 
Elm, and the toll-gate is called PifFe's Elm Pike. The 
smallest girth of this tree, which is about five feet from 
the ground, was in 1783 exactly sixteen feet. At ten 
feet it threw out large branches, which were formerly 
lopped, but were then furnished with branches seventy or 
eighty feet high, and of proportionable extent*. 

It is to be hoped that something will be done, before it 
be too late, to prevent the threatened destruction of the 
fine Elm-trees in St. James's Park-f*. 

* See Martyn's edition of Miller's Dictionary. 

t An examination having lately been made into the state of the 
Elm-trees in St. James's and Hyde Parks, by desire of the Ranger, 
Lord Sidney, they were discovered by Mr. Macleay ^who made the 
examination) to be infested by a species of beetle which had already 
done considerable mischief, and threatened their entire destruction. 

The Elm-trees in both the parks," says Mr. Macleay, " and 
particularly in St. James's, are rapidly disappearing ; and unless 
decisive measures be soon taken to resist the progress of the conta- 
gion, we must not only expect every tree of this species to be 

K 2 



132 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Evelyn commends Elm timber for a variety of pur- 
poses, on account of its toughness and long durance in 

destroyed in the parks, but may have to regret the dissemination of 
the evil throughout the vicinity of London. 

" In St. James's Park, which has more particularly been subject 
to my examination, there are several species of beetles to be found 
attacking the Elms. That species, hovs^ever, which occasions all 
the havoc we have now to lament in the Mall and Bird Cage 
W alk is the Hylesinus destructor of Fabricius, or ScoJytus destructor 
of Latreiile ; an insect of which the history is briefly as follows : 

" A small beetle, with its head rather covered with hair, having a 
polished black thorax, and brown wing-cases, may be seen in num- 
bers running over the trunks of the Elms, from the end of March 
to the first days of July ; but principally about the end of May, or 
commencement of June. It may then be seen entering into holes, 
with which the bark is perforated as though with a gimblet. It 
insinuates itself into these holes, or into the crevices of the bark, 
for the purpose of depositing its eggs. On stripping off a piece of 
the loose bark, we may easily, at any season, understand how the 
barking of trees is effected by these minute animals, for the surface 
of the wood thus exposed presents to the view innumerable impres- 
sions, which may be compared to impressions or casts of large and 
broad scolopendras . 

The middle or body of this singular impression marks the 
path of the perfect female insect, while employed in laying her 
eggs, which is to her, as to most winged insects, the forerunner of 
death. From this tubular path, however, in which she deposits her 
eggs, the larvae, which are hatched from these eggs, in the shape 
of little white apod worms, proceed nearly at right angles, eating 
their way in parallel smaller tubes, which, lying close to each other, 
effectually serve to separate the bark from the tree. The larvae 
remain feeding in the tree, generally between the bark and the wood^ 
throughout the winter season. About the commencement of spring 
they assume the pupa or nymph state, and, before the end of this 
season, the bark of an infected tree begins to appear as if all its 
crevices were full of a fine saw-dust. The last change of the insect 
takes place ; and, being now winged, it tries to arrive at the ex- 



ELM TREE. 



133 



either extreme of wet or dry. It is proper, too," he 
says, " by reason of the tenor of the grain, for all those 
curious works of fruitages, fohages, shields, statues, and 
most of the ornaments appertaining to the orders of 
architecture," 

It is frequently substituted for oak in carpenters'* work 
of all kinds, and is liberally used in house-building. In 
Norway, in times of scarcity, the bark dried and pow- 
dered has been mixed with meal for bread. 

The dried leaves are a good winter fodder for cattle. 
In some parts of Herefordshire they are gathered in sacks 
for that purpose. Virgil praises the tree for the quan- 
tity of leaves it yields : 

" Foecundae frondibus ulmi." 
" Fruitful in leaves, the elm." 

The Elm is considered injurious, and sometimes even 
fatal to bees ; so that where Elms grow in great num- 
bers, they do not thrive. Dr. Hunter, in his notes to 
Evelyn, here takes occasion to quote a passage from Vir- 
gil descriptive of the malady so fatal to bees, supposed 
to be occasioned by feeding on the Elm. It may not 
be amiss to follow so good an example : 

ternal air, for the purpose of propagating its species, and laying its 
eggs in other trees. Each hole, which now appears as if made with 
a girablet, marks the exit of a perfect insect. In the first instance, 
the voracity of the larvae, and, in the second, the endeavours of the 
perfect insects to liberate themselves from the wood, particularly 
when such attempts are made by almost infinite numbers, soon 
occasion the bark to fall in large pieces. The consequence is, that 
the new leaves only make their appearance to wither, and the tree 
perishes." 

See W. S. Macleay, Esq. on the State of the Elm-trees in St. 
James's and Hyde Parks, in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal 
for July 1824. 



134 



SYLVAN SKETCHES, 



But when, as human ills descend to bees. 

The pining nation labours with disease ; 

Changed is their glittering hue to ghastly pale^ 

Roughness and leanness o'er their limbs prevail ; 

Forth the dead citizens with grief are borne. 

In solemn state — the sad attendants mourn : 

Clung by the feet they hang the live-long day 

Around the door, or in their chambers stay ; 

Hunger, and cold, and grief their toils delay. 

'Tis then in hoarser tones their hums resound 

Like hollow winds, the rustling forest round ; 

Or billows breaking on a distant shore. 

Or flames in furnaces that inly roar. 

Galbanean odours here I shall advise ; 

And through a reed to pour the sweet supplies 

Of golden honey, to invite the taste 

Of the sick nation to their known repast : 

Bruised galls, dried roses, thyme, and centaury join^ 

And raisins, ripened on the Psithian vine. 

Besides, in meads the plant amellus grows. 

And from one root thick stalks profusely throws. 

Which easily the wandering simpler knows." 

Warton's Translation. 

Marty n observes, that the twigs of the Elm were for- 
merly used as instruments of castigation ; for that Plau- 
tus speaks of a rogue who had been chastised so often, 
that he had wasted all the Elms in the country in rods 
and cudgels. 

" The Elm,^' says Gilpin, " naturally grows upright, 
and where it meets with a soil it loves, rises higher than 
the generality of trees; and after it has assumed the 
dignity and hoary roughness of age, few of its forest 
brethren, though properly speaking it is not a forester, 
excel it in grandeur and beauty. The character of the 
Elm, in its skeleton, partakes much of the oak ; so much, 



ELM THEE. 



135 



that when it is rough and old, it may easily, at a little 
distance, be mistaken for the oak. In full foliage its 
character is better marked ; and no tree is better adapted 
to receive grand masses of light ; nor is its foliage, sha- 
dowing as it is, of the heavy kind : its leaves are small, 
and this gives it a natural lightness ; it commonly hangs 
loosely, and is in general very picturesque." 

There is a variety of the common Elm, called the Nar- 
row-leaved Elm, which is altogether cf smaller growth : 
this is called in the nurseries the English Elm, an appel- 
lation of which Miller and some others dispute the pro- 
priety. 

The Cork-barked Elm, Vlmus sziherosa, or, as it is 
commonly called, the Dutch Elm, because introduced 
here from Holland, is chiefly remarkable for its fungous 
rough bark, and its quick growth. The wood is of very 
inferior quality. 

The Broad-leaved Elm, Uhnus niontana^ is also called 
the Wych Elm, or Wych Hazel. The trunk soon di- 
vides into long wide-spreading branches ; and when at 
full growth, is not above a third of the height of the 
common Elm. It blossoms before it is thirty feet high, 
whereas the common Elm seldom flowers till it has at- 
tained a much greater height and age. The bark is so 
tough, that the boughs may be peeled from one end to 
the other, without its breaking : and this is often made 
into ropes. The leaves are twice the size of those of the 
common Elm, and resemble those of the hazel. This 
tree grows plentifully in most parts of Hampshire, where 
it is commonly called Witch Hazel. It will prosper in a 
moist or a dry soil, on high hills, or in low valleys. 

The wood of this tree was used for long-bows when 



136 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



they were in fashion, and it is recommended for that 
purpose in the Enghsh statutes. 

It is found in shady lands, and the outskirts of woods 
in most parts of England, and is considered indigenous. 
Martyn observes, that old writers always spell the name 
Witch, as Goodyer, Ray, Evelyn, &c., but that the 
prevaihng mode now seems to be Wych ; and that the 
tree is more commonly called by that name, without the 
adjunct of Elm or Hazel. 

Cultivation and situation make many slight differences 
in the Elm, which have hastily been taken for specific, 
but afterwards proved mere varieties, — too uncertain, or 
too unimportant, in many instances, to deserve attention. 

The American Elm, Ulmus Americana^ was cultivated 
in England by James Gordon, Esq. in 1752. Of this 
American Elm, specifically so called, there are three 
varieties — the Red, the White, and the Weeping Elm : 
the two former take their name from the colour of their 
branches ; the latter from their pendent growth. The 
Red Elm is said to grow very fast in this country. 
Kalm says, that boats are made of the bark of the White 
Elm ; the method of making which he particularly 
describes. 

The Hornbeam-leaved Elm, Ulmus 7iemoraIis, also a 
native of North America, M^as cultivated here by J. Gor- 
don, Esq. in 1760. 

The Dwarf Elm, L lmus pumila^ which in sandy 
lands is very small, in southern Russia contends in sta- 
ture with the oak. The leaves are used in some parts of 
Russia as a succedaneum for tea. 

Chatterton compares a dying warrior to an Elm torn 
by a storm : — 



ELM TREE. 



137 



" Distort with peyne he laie upon the borne, 

Lyke sturdie ehns by storraes in uncothe wrythynges torne." 

Battle of Hastings. 

In another passage of the same poem, speaking of a 
lady''s shape, he says it is 

" Tapre as ehnes that Goodricke's abbie shrove." 

Leigh Hunt, whose poetry always dwells upon the 
more cheerful side of tilings, compares this tree to a 
warrior before battle : 

" As I thought thus^ a neighbouring wood of elms 
Was moved, and stirred and whispered loftily ; 
Much like a pomp of warriors with plumed helms, 
When some great general whom they long to see 
Is heard behind them, coming in swift dignity." 

Nymphs, part ii. 

The Elm was in high esteem among the ancients : they 
preferred it to every other as a prop for vines, and this 
connexion is continually noticed by the poets. Spenser 
calls it the " Vine-prop Elm.'' Harte, in the translation 
of Statins, the " Nuptial Ehn.'' Fairfax, in his trans- 
lation from Tasso, says — 

" The married elm fell with his fruitful vine." 

The lofty elm, with creeping vines o'erspread." 

Orger's Ovid. 

Milton, describing the innocent occupations of Adam 
and Eve in Paradise, says — 

They led the vine 

To wed her elm ; she, spoused, about him twines 
Her marriageable arms, and with her brings 
Her doAvcr, the adopted clusters, to adorn 
His barren leaves." 



138 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



" Behold at length where yonder clustering vine 
Her amorous arms around the elm extends." 

And reiki's Adam. 

" Sometimes the beauteous, marriageable vine 
He to the lusty bridegroom elm does join/' 

says Cowley ; although Horace, in the original ode, of 
which this is a translation, speaks of the poplar instead 
of the Elm : 

' ' Ergo aut adulta vitium propagine 
Altas maritat populos." 

Ode ii. lib. v. 

'* The amorous vine 



Did with the fair and straight-hmbed elm entwine." 

F. Beaumont. 

The following passage is from Harris's Lines on the 
Death and Works of Fletcher : 

'* Singly we now consult ourselves and fame. 
Ambitious to twist ours with thy great name. 
Hence we thus bold to praise : for as a vine 
With subtle wreath, and close embrace, doth twine 
A friendly elm, by whose tall trunk it shoots, 
And gathers growth and moisture from its roots, 
About its arms the thankful clusters cling 
Like bracelets, and with purple ammelling 
The blue-cheeked grape, stuck in its verdant hair 
Hangs like rich jewels in a beauteous ear. 
So grow our praises by thy wit ; we do 
Borrow support and strength, and lend but show 

" The gentle myrtle 

Is not engraft upon an olive's stock ; 

Yet nature hath between them locked a secret 

Of sympathy, that, being planted near, 



* Beaumont and Fletcher, vol. i. p. 255, 



ELM TREE. 



139 



They will, both in their branches and their roots. 
Embrace each other ; twines of ivy round * 
The well-grown oak ; the vine doth court the elm ; 
Yet these are different plants/' 

Ford's Lover's Melancholy. 

" Come olmo, a cui la pampinosa pianta 
Cupida s'avviticchi e si marite, 
Se ferro il tronca, e turbine lo schianta, 
Trae seco a terra la compagna vite ; 
Ed egli stesso il verde, onde s'ammanta, 
Le vsfronda, e pesta I'uve sue gradite. 
Par che sen dolga, e piu che '1 proprio fato, 
Di lei gl' incresca che gli muore allato." 

TassOj canto xx. 

" As the high elm, whom his dear vine hath twined 
Fast in her hundred arms, and holds embraced, 
Bears down to earth his spouse and darling kind. 
If storm or cruel steel the tree down cast. 
And her full grapes to nought doth bruise and grind. 
Spoils his own leaves, faints, withers, dies at last, 
And seems to mourn and die,, not for his own, 
But for her loss, with him that lies overthrown." 

Fairfax's Translation. 

" The olive, that in wainscot never cleaves ; 
The amorous vine that in the elm still weaves." 

W. Browne. 

Instances of this union are without end : the ivy too 
is sometimes represented as twining around the trunk and 
branches of the ehn : Titania says 

" The female ivy so 

Enrings the barky fingers of the elm." 

We are told, too, that notwithstanding their female 
nature, no jealousy attends this rivalry : 

* It will be observed that round is here used in the sense of sur- 
roun d. 



140 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



" The lusty vinC;, not jealous of the ivy, 
Because she clips the elm." 

Lover's Progress; Beaumont and Fletcher. 

Whatever be the cause, however, another poet tells us 
that 

" Everlasting hate 

The vine to ivy bears."' 

PHiLirs's Cyder. 

Milton celebrates the shade of this beautiful tree : 

" Nor always city-pent, or pent at home, 

I dwell ; but when spring calls me forth to roam, 
Expatiate in our proud suburban shades 
Of branching elm, that never sun pervades." 

Elegy to C. Deodati. 

" iEgon invites me to the hazel grove, 
Amyntas, on the river's bank to rove, 
And young AlphesibtEus to a seat 
"^Vhere branching elms exclude the mid-day heat." 

Poem on the Death of C. Deodati. 

Blair gives a most shivering description of an Elm old 
and decayed : 

" Quite round the pile, a row of reverend elms. 
Coeval near with that, all ragged show^ 
Long lashed by the rude winds ; some rift half down" 
Their branchless trunks ; others so thin atop. 
That scarce two crows could lodge in the same tree." 

The Grave. 

W. Browne gives it a benevolent character : 

' ' There stood the elme, whose shade, so mildly dim. 
Doth nourish all that groweth under him." 



FjR TREE. 



PINUS. 

COXIFERjE. moncecia monadelphia, 

French, sapin ; Italian, abeto. 

The Silver Fir, Pinus picea, is a noble upright tree : 
the branches are not very numerous, the bark is smooth ; 
the upper surface of the leaves is of a strong fine green, 
their under-side is marked with two white lines running 
lengthwise on each side of the midrib, giving a silvery 
appearance, from which this Fir takes its name. The 
cones are large, and grow erect. It is a native of Swit- 
zerland, Germany, Siberia, Mount Caucasus, &c. 

It has been observed in Ireland, that no tree grows 
so speedily to so large a size as the Silver Fir. It is 
reckoned a good timber for boat-building. A gentleman 
in Hampshire floored his library with Silver Fir fresh 
felled, and the boards did not contract in the least. 
A turpentine, called the Strasburg, is obtained from this 
tree. 

The Balm of Gilead Fir, Pinus balsavieo, is a beautiful 
tree ; some consider it the handsomest of the Firs while 
young ; it has very much the habit of the Silver Fir ; 
the leaves are wider and blunter, and the cones are not 
so long. The leaves and buds are remarkably fragrant. 
A very fine turpentine, called Canada Balsam, is obtained 
from it, which is sold for the Balm of Gilead. 

This tree is a native of Virginia, where it grows to a 



142 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



large size; here, after the first eight or ten years, it 
makes httie progress. 

The Black, Pinus nigra, and the White Spruce Fir, 
Piniis alba, are so named from the colour of their bark ; 
there is little difference in that of the wood; and the 
under-sides of the leaves are whiter in the black species 
than in the white. Both are natives of North America ; 
the white, which is much the largest, on the mountains ; 
the black, on the low grounds, generally in bogs and 
swamps. From both the sorts exudes a clear resin of a 
strong scent, much used by the Indians to cure wounds 
and internal disorders ; and the branches of both are 
indifferently used in making spruce beer. 

There is a variety called the Long-coned Cornish Fir. 

The Norway spruce, Pinus abies, is the loftiest of 
our European trees, attaining a height of one hundred 
and forty or one hundred and fifty feet, with a very 
straight trunk, and throwing out its spreading branches 
so as to form an elegant pyramid. 

This tree is called the Norway Spruce, because its 
timber is chiefly imported into this country from Norway. 
The vast woods of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, are 
principally composed of this Fir, and the Pinus sylvestris; 
which we call the Scotch pine, because it abounds in 
Scotland, and is the only tree of the genus that is in- 
digenous there. 

There are two principal varieties of the Norway 
Spruce Fir ; the white, and the red ; supposed to be 
so called from the paler or deeper colour of their cones : 
both afford the white deals ; the red deal is the timber of 
the Pinus sylvestris, and is of a much superior quality. 

Fir was formerly used for building ships, and still is 
in use for masts, and some other parts, but seldom for 



FIR TREE. 



14S 



entire vessels, unless in small craft. The chief con- 
sumption of deal now is for the interior work of our 
houses, and some articles of household furniture. It is 
a smooth wood to polish, and is therefore thought good 
for gilding : it takes black as well as the wood of the pear- 
tree, and is approved for carving, the grain being easy 
to work : it is thought to be more easily wrought, and 
to take glue better than any other wood. It yields 
pitch, tar, turpentine, and resin ; and from the buds and 
tops spruce beer is made, which is considered an ex- 
cellent remedy for the scurvy. Even the fresh cones 
boiled in whey are considered efficacious in cases of 
scurvy. 

The air impregnated with the exhalations of Fir-trees 
is by some persons considered very wholesome, especially 
for persons of delicate lungs. 

The Abbe Barthelemy says, in speaking of Arcadia, 
" Ce pays produit presque tous les arbres connus. Les 
habitans, qui en font une etude suivie, assignent a la 
plupart des noms particuliers ; mais il est aise d'y di- 
stinguer le pin, le sapin, le cypres, le thuja, Tandrachne, 
le peuplier, une sorte de cedre dont le fruit ne murit que 
dans le troisieme annee. J'en omets beaucoup autres 
qui sont egalement communs, ainsi que les arbres qui 
font Tornement des jardins. Nous vimes, dans une vallee, 
des sapins d'une grosseur et d'une hauteur extraordinaires : 
on nous dit qu'ils devaient leur accroissement a leur 
heureuse position ; ils ne sont exposes ni aux fureurs des 
vents ni aux feux du soleil.'' 

Voyage d'Anacharsis^ ch. 52. 

This country produces almost all known trees ; the inhabitants, 
who make a constant study of them, assign particular names to 



144 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



most of them ; but it is easy to distinguish the pine, the fir, the 
cypress, the arbor-vitae, the andrachne, the poplar ; a sort of cedar, 
the fruit of which ripens every third year ; and many others equally 
well known, which, as well as the trees more peculiarly belong- 
ing to the garden^ I omit. We saw in a valley some firs of a pro- 
digious size and height ; and were told they owed their extraor- 
dinary growth to their excellent situation^ being neither exposed 
to the fury of the v/inds nor to the scorching heat of the sun. 

Dr. Clarke, in his Travels in Sweden, Nor^vay, &c. 
describes the simple mode by which the tar is obtained 
from the roots of the Fir-tree ; a mode, he says, exactly 
similar v/ith that of the ancient Greeks : 

" A conical cavity is made in the ground, generally 
in the side of a bank or sloping hill, and the roots of 
the Fir, together with logs or billets of the same, being 
neatly trussed into a stack of the same conical shape, are 
let into this cavity. The whole is then covered with turf, 
to prevent the volatile parts from being dissipated, which, 
by means of a heavy wooden mallet, and a wooden 
stamper, worked separately by two men, is beaten down, 
and rendered as firm as possible above the wood. The 
stack of billets is then kindled, and a slow combustion of 
the Fir takes place, without flame, as in making charcoal. 
During this combustion, the tar exudes ; and a cast-iron 
pan being at the bottom of the funnel with a spout, 
which projects through the side of the bank, barrels are 
placed beneath this spout, to collect the fluid as it comes 
away. As fast as the barrels are filled, they are bunged, 
and ready for exportation.'" 

To the Norwegian peasants the Fir is of singular 
utility : Dr. Clarke observes, that " their sumnium lotium 
seems to consist in the produce of the Fir. This tree 



FIR TREE. 



145 



affords materials for building their houses, churches, and 
bridges, for every article of their household furniture, for 
constructing sledges, carts and boats, besides fuel for 
their hearths. With its leaves they strew their floors, 
and afterwards burn them, and collect the ashes for 
manure.'" 

Sir William Ouseley describes the houses of the pea- 
sants in Turkey as being frequently built of pine or Fir 
trees ; and says also, that " pieces of resinous Fir tree 
wood supplied the place of candles at Bedrowas."' 

Hall, in his Travels in Scotland, says, " Among the 
better sort of people, tallow candles, and oil lamps, as 
well as wax candles, are sometimes used ; but, as it is not 
only cheaper, but gives a better light, many upon ordi- 
nary occasions use only pieces of Fir, split thin, from the 
roots of trees found in the mosses ; which, from the great 
quantity of the resinous and inflanmiable matter they con- 
tain, give excellent hght. It is the business of the young 
people in the house to prepare and hold these candles, 
one of which affording nearly as much light as a torch, 
generally serves all in any one room of the house. Agree- 
ably to this notion, when a rich man in London lately 
was extolKng the candlesticks on the table, which were 
of mass)^ silver, elegantl}' carved; a gentleman from 
Strathspey being present, said that these were not so 
valuable as the candlesticks in many parts of the High- 
lands of Scotland. A thousand guineas were immediately 
laid, that there were not better nor more valuable 
than those in all the Highlands. The gentleman who 
held the bet was allowed a sufficient time for the candle- 
sticks to be brought to London for inspection, and proof 
that they had been used in the Highlands previously to 
the staking of the thousand guineas. When the evening 

L 



146 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



of the day arrived that the Highland candlesticks were 
to be inspected, four uncommonly handsome young men, 
in elegant Highland dresses, unexpectedly entered the 
room with blazing torches of fir in their hands. It was 
universally agreed that these were the candlesticks used 
in the Highlands, and those referred to when the bet was 
laid, and also that they were the most valuable. The 
gentleman, therefore, who proposed it, lost the bet." 

I Vol. ii. p. 440. 

Wordsworth notices the strong outline made by the 
dark Fir in the dusk of evening, which makes it one of 
the last objects visible : 

" Unheeded night has overcome the vales : 
On the dark earth the bafiied vision fails ; 
The latest lingerer of the forest-train, 
The lone black fir foi^sakes the faded plain." 

Vol. i. p. 67. 

He thus addresses an absent friend : 

' ' And now I call the pathway by thy name. 
And love the fir-grove with a perfect love ; 
Thither do I withdraw when. cloudless suns 
Shine hot, or wind blows troublesome and strong : 
And thefe I sit at evening, when the steep 
Of Silver -how and Grasmere's placid lake. 
And one green island, gleam between the stems 
Of the dark firs — a visionary scene." 

Vol. ii. p. 279. 

The soft murmuring of the winds in trees of this 
genus has been noticed repeatedly : 

While o'er my head 
At every impulse of the moving breeze 
The fir-grove murmurs with a sea-like sound. 
Alone I tread this path. 

Wordsworth, ii, 280. 



Fill THEE. 



147 



Virgil, speaking of different soils, says 

" At sceleratum exquirere frigus 

Difficile est ; piceie tantum, taxique nocentes 
Interdum, aut hederee pandunt vestigia nigrae." 

It is hard to discover the pernicious cold j only Fir trees^ and 
yews, and black ivy sometimes will indicate it. 

Fawkes uses an epithet peculiarly applicable to its 
growth : 

Here spiry firs extend their lengthened ranks ; 
There violets blossom on the sunny banks." 

Bramham Park. 

Fairfax terms it the " Weeping Fir in allusion to 
the turpentine that flows from it when wounded : Spenser 
also speaks of it as 

" The fir that weepeth still." 

W. Browne calls it 

The firre that oftentimes doth rosin drop." 

The following evidently alludes to its use in ship- 
building : 

" Th' adventurous fir that sails the vast -profound." 

Harte's Statins, b. 6. 

Drayton speaks of it as the tree of Mars : 

Fair Venus' myrtle, Mars his warHke fir, 
Minerva's olive, and the weeping myrrh." 

Mr. Keats, with that poetic power which expresses 
much in a few words, describes to us the constant occu- 
pation of the Fir tree in the fruit season : 

" Fir trees grow around. 

Aye dropping their hard fruit upon the ground." 

L 2 



148 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



It cannot therefore be said of the Fir tree as Voltaire 
said of his trees at Ferney, when being comphmented 
upon their quick growth, he answered that they had 
nothing else to do but to grow. 



GLYCINE. 



LEGriVIIXOS.?:. diadelphia decandria. 

Glycine is of Greek origin, and signifies sweet — French, haricot 
en arbre ; Italian, glicine. 

The shrubby Glycine, Glycine frutescens^ or Carolina 
Kidney-bean Tree, was introduced here in 1724, by Mr. 
Catesby ; it has woody stalks which twist themselves 
together, and twine round any trees that grow near, and 
will rise to the height of fifteen feet or more. The leaves 
somewhat resemble those of the ash in shape ; purple 
flowers are produced in clusters from the axils, which are 
succeeded by legumes shaped Kke those of the scarlet 
kidney-bean, containing several seeds ; but these do not 
ripen in England. 



HARE/S EAR. 



BUPLEURUM. 

UMBELLIFERiE. PENTANDRIA DIGYNIA. 

French, bupleure ; Italian, bupleuro. 

Shrubby Hare's Ear, or Ethiopian Hartwort, Bu- 
pleurum Jruticosum^ is an evergreen shrub five or six feet 
high, and branching into a large regular bush ; the bark 
is of a purplish colour ; the leaves are sea-green ; they 
are about four inches long and one broad, placed alter- 
nately on the branches, oblong, smooth, stiff, and shining. 
The branches are terminated by umbels or bunches of 
flowers, first yellow, but fading to brown ; these blow in 
July or August, but seldom produce ripe seeds in Eng- 
land. It is a native of the Levant, Italy, and the South 
of France. Gerarde cultivated it in his garden in 1596, 
by the name of Shrub Sesely, or Ethiopian Hart- Wort ; 
and compares the leaves, both for shape and substance, 
with those of the oleander. 



HAWTHORN. 



CRAT^GUS. 

ROSACExE. ICOSANDRIA DIGYNIA. 

French, neflier ; Italian, lazerolo. 

In addition to the common Hawthorn, or White-thoni, 
so deservedly admired as one of the earhest and greatest 
ornaments of our hedges in the spring, and one of the 
latest in the autumn (for the berries are perhaps even 
more beautiful than the blossoms ; not to mention the 
numbers of warbhng guests that sit upon the boughs, 
and feed on them), our plantations boast of several 
American species, which, though none, perhaps, can vie 
with our own in beauty, serve to make an agreeable 
variety. 

The Great American, or Scarlet Fruited Hawthorn, 
Cratcegus coccinea, grows about twenty feet high in this 
country ; the flowers are large, come out in large clusters, 
and make a handsome show in the month of May : these 
are succeeded by a large pear-shaped fruit, of a brilliant 
scarlet colour, which ripens in September. The leaves 
in the autumn turn to a brown red. This was first 
cultivated in England by Mr, J. Robert in 1696. 

The Great-fruited Hawthorn, Cratcegus punctata, was 
introduced here in 1746, by Archibald, Duke of Argyle, 
Its fruit is orange-red, dotted with brown ; it has no 
thorns. 

The blossoms of the Woolly-leaved Hawthorn are 



152 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



small, and blow in June ; the fruit ripens late in autumn. 
There is a variety of this with larger blossoms and fruity 
and no thorns, called the Carohna Hawthorn. 

The Cockspur Hawthorn, Cintc^gus crus-galli^ which 
was cultivated in this country in 1691, by Mr. Charles 
Howard, has fine blush-coloured flow^ers, or white tinged 
with blush-colour ; the fruit is globular, and of a bright 
red. This also blows in May. 

The branches of the Maple-leaved Hawthorn, Cratoegus 
cor data, are spotted with white : this was raised in the 
Chelsea Garden in 1738, from seeds sent from America, 
by the title of Nev/ Haw. It flowers late in May, and 
the fruit ripens late in autumn. 

The Pear-leaved sort, CrostcEgus pyrrfolia, and Oval- 
leaved, Cratcegus elliptica, were introduced by Messrs. 
Kennedy and Lee in 1765. 

The Hollow-leaved, Cratcugus glandidosa, flowers in 
May and June : it was cultivated here in 1750. The 
Yellow pear-berried, which blossoms in May, was not 
knov^al in this country until 1758. 

The Gooseberry-leaved Hawthorn, Crat(Fgus parvi- 
Jvlia, has very small leaves ; the flowers come out two or 
three, or even one at a time ; the fruit is small, and of a 
green yellow colour. Some of the plants were raised in 
Bishop Compton's garden at Fulham, from seeds sent by 
Mr. Banister from Virginia, at the beginning of the 
eighteenth century. 

These are all Americans. 

Quickset hedges are of great antiquity. Evelyn says, 
the Hav/thorn, Whitethorn, or Crataegus oxyacantlia, 
was accounted one of the fortunate trees, and used at 
nuptial feasts, " since the jolly shepherds carried the 



HAWTHORN. 



153 



Whitethorn at the rape of the Sabines, and ever after 
considered propitious.'' 

When Ulysses, on his return to his native land, went 
to see his father Laertes, the old man is represented alone 
in his garden, having sent his men to gather thorns from 
the woods : 

" Nor aged Dolius, nor his sons were there. 
Nor servants, absent on another care ; 
To search the woods for sets of flowery thorn. 
Their orchard hounds to strengthen and adorn " 

Pope's Homer's Odyssey, book xxiv. 

Goldsmith, in his Deserted Village, describes the 
Hawthorn in a lively manner : 

The hawthorn-bush, with seats beneath the shade. 
For talking age and whispering lovers made ! 
How often have I blessed the coming day. 
When toil remitting lent its turn to play. 
And all the village-train from labour free. 
Led up their sports beneath the spreading tree ; 
While many a pastime circled in the shade. 
The young contending, as the old surveyed." 

The following lines describe the appearance of this 
tree on the first of April : 

" Fringing the forest's devious edge. 

Half-robed appears the hawthorn hedge ; 
Or to the distant eye displays 
Weakly green its budding sprays." 

T. Warton. 

Observe the words of a king : 

" Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade 
To shepherds, looking on their silly sheep. 
Than doth a rich embroidered canopy 
To kings, that fear their subjects' treachery ? 



154 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



O yes it doth ; a thousand fold it doth ; 
And, to conclude,— the shepherd's homely curds. 
His cold thin drink out of his leathern bottle. 
His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade, 
All which secure and sweetly he enjoys. 
Is far beyond a prince's delicates." 

Third Part— Henry Sixth. 

The Hawthorn is always associated with the idea of 
tranquil ease, or rural sports : 

Come, my Corinna, come, and coming, mark 

Plow each field turns a street, each street a park. 

Made green, and trimmed with trees ; see how 

Devotion gives each house a bough 

Or branch ; each porch, each door, ere this. 

An ark, a tabernacle is ; 

Made up of Whitethorn neatly interwove." 

Herrick's Hesperides. 

The beautiful blossoms of the Whitethorn very much 
resemble the cherry-blossom, or that of the myrtle. 
Sometimes indeed they are deeply tinted with rose- 
colour, but they are much more generally white : 

Between the leaves the silver Whitethorn shows 
Its dewy blossows pure as mountain snows." 

Kleist's Spring *. 

The Glastonbury Thorn, which is an early variety of 
the Cratcegus oxyacantha, is said to have been originally 
the staff of Joseph of Arimathea. According to the 
tradition of the Abbey of Glastonbury, he came to Bri- 
tain, attended by twelve companions, and founded, in 
honour of the Blessed Virgin, the first Christian church 
in this island. As a proof of his mission, he is said to 



* See Time's Telescope for 1820, p. 171. 



HAWTHORN. 



155 



have stuck his staff into the ground, which immediately 
shot forth, and blossomed. By some credulous persons, 
this tree was long thought to put forth its blossoms an- 
nuallv on Christmas day ; but this deceit has now lost 
its credit, even with the ignorant. 



HAZEL-NUT THEE. 



CORYLUS. 

CORi-LIDE.?;. MON(ECIA POLYANDRIA, 

French, coudrier, noisetier ; Italian, nocciolo. 

The common Hazel, Corylus avellana, grows wild in 
many woods and coppices in England, where the fruit 
is gathered in gTeat plenty by the countr}- people, and 
sent tc the London markets. 

The trunk of the Hazel is covered with a whitish 
cloven bark, which is smooth on the branches, frequently 
of a bay colour, and spotted with white. The leaves are 
alternate, serrate or wrinkled, hairy on both sides, dark 
green above, a paler green on the under side ; on very 
hairy round foot-stalks, about an inch long ; on the lower 
side of the leaf is a Avhite hairy midi'ib, from which pro- 
ceed several white nerves, and between these is a kind of 
veiny net-work. 

When this shrub is allowed time for growth, it will 
furnish poles twenty feet in length ; but it is generally 
cut doMii long before it attains that height, for walking- 
sticks, fishing-rods, &c. The roots are used for inlaying 
or staining. When yeast is scai'ce, some persons twist 
the t^^dgs of the Hazel, steep them in ale during its fer- 
mentation, and hang them up to di'y ; when they are put 
into the wort, either to assist, or supply the place of, the 
yeast. The chips are put into wine to purify it. 

There are several varieties of the Hazel, the White 



HAZEL-NUT TREE. 



157 



Filbert, the Red Filbert, the Cob, and the Cluster- 
nut. The White and Red Filbert are so named from 
the colour of the outer skin of the kernel. The Cob-nut 
is very round and large, and the Cluster-nut is produced 
in large bunches or clusters at the ends of the branches. 

Swinburne informs us that Avellana is from Avellino, a 
city of Naples, in the neighbourhood of which the nuts 
are cultivated in great abundance ; and that in favour- 
able seasons it brings a profit of 60,000 ducats, or 
11,250/. The nuts are principally the large round fil- 
bert, which we call the Spanish Filbert. These were 
originally imported into Italy from Pontus, and known 
to the Romans by the name of Nux Pontica ; which was 
afterwards changed to 'Niix AveLana^ from the place 
where they had been most successfully cultivated. 

Evelyn has a very singular passage concerning the 
Hazel : after recounting a variety of purposes for which 
it is well adapted, he continues — 

" Lastly, for riding-switches and divinatory-rods for 
' the detecting and finding out of minerals (at least, if 
that tradition be no imposture) ; it is very wonderful, 
by whatever occult virtue, the forked stick (so cut, and 
skilfully held) becomes impregnated with those invisible 
steams and exhalations, as by its spontaneous bending 
from a horizontal posture, to discover not only mines, 
and subterraneous treasure, and springs of water, but 
criminals guilty of murder, &c. ; made out so solemnly, 
and the effects thereof, by the attestation of magistrates, 
and divers other learned and credible persons (who have 
critically examined matters of fact), is certainly next to 
- miracle, and requires a strong faith. Let the curious, 
therefore, consult that philosophical treatise of Dr. Valle- 



158 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



mont, which vvill at least entertain them with a world of 
surprising things. 

" But now after all, the most signal honour it was ever 
employed in, and which might deservedly exalt this 
humble and common plant above all the trees of the 
wood, is that cf hurdles.— not for that it is generally used 
in the folding of our innocent sheep, an emblem of the 
church, — but for making the walls of one of the first Chris- 
tian oratories in the world, and particularly in this island, 
that venerable and sacred fabric of Glastonbury, founded 
by Joseph of Arimathea; which is storied to have 
been first composed of a few hazel-rods interwoven 
about certain stakes di'iven in the ground : and walls of 
this kind instead of laths and puncheons, superinduced 
with a coarse mortal' made of loam and straw, do to this 
dav enclose divers humble cottages, sheds, and out- 
houses in the country."" 

The first part of this quotation is certainly rather ex- 
traordinary, but the most extraordinary tiling about it is, 
that such a man should relate it in a manner so serious : 
this tale might indeed have pleased the active faith of 
Sir Thomas BrovTxe. It may probably remind the reader 
of Captain Stedman's mode of discovering theft among 
his negroes, informing them that the guilty person's nose 
would very shortly be adorned with a sprouting feather ; 
then secretly watching their actions, and detecting the 
person by observing him constantly putting his hand to 
his nose to learn if the proof of his guilt had yet made 
its appearance there*. 

Speaking of the nuts, Evelyn says, " They are brought 

* See Stedman's Surinam, vol. ii. 



HAZEL-NUT TREE. 



159 



among other fruit to the best tables for dessert, and are 
said to fatten, but too much eaten are obnoxious to the 
asthmatic. In the mean time of this I have had expe- 
rience, that Hazel-nuts, but the Filbert especially, being 
full ripe, and peeled in warm water (as they blanch 
almonds) make a pudding very little, if at all, inferior to 
that our ladies make of ahnonds." 

The following passage is interesting to an admirer of 
Evel3ni : 

" I do not,'' says he, " confound the filbert Pontic, or 
filberd distinguished by its beard, with our foresters, or 
bald Hazel-nuts, which doubtless we had from abroad, 
and bearing the names of Avelan, Avehn ; as I find in 
some ancient records and deeds in my custody, vvhere 
my ancestors' names were written Avelan, alias Evelin, 
generally." 

He observes that the Hazel " prospers well where 
quarries of freestone lie underneath, as at Hazelbury in 
Wilts ; Hazeling-field in Cambridgeshire ; Hazlemere 
in Surrey, and other places." The places here mentioned 
are evidently named from the Hazel. 

The spreading roots of the Hazel are reckoned very 
mischievous in a vineyard : 

Neve inter vites corylum sere." 

Virgil, Geoigic ii. 

" Plant no hazels among your vines." 

The goat also is an enemy to the vineyard, and on 
that account was sacrificed by the Romans to Bacchus ; 
and the entrails were roasted on hazel spits. They used 
hazel twigs to bind the vines. 

Thomson, describing the birds preparing nests for their 
young, says, 



160 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Among the roots 

Of hazelj pendent o'er the plaintive streams. 
They frame the first foundation of their domes : 
Dry sprigs of trees, in artful fabric laid. 
And bound with clay together." 

Spring. 

Gay, in his Rural Sports, among which, however, he has 
not included the pleasant one of nutting, sKghtly men- 
tions the Hazel (as it is generally pictured by the poets), 
as growing by the margin of a brook : 

" O lead m^e, guard me, from the sultry hours. 
Hide me, ye forests, in your closest bowers. 
Where the tall oak his spreading arms entwines. 
And with the beech a mutual shade combines ; 
Where flows the murmuring brook, inviting dreams : 
Where bordering hazel overhangs the streams, 
^'^^hose rolling current, winding round and round. 
With frequent falls makes all the woods resound." 

Thomson gives a pretty picture on this subject : 

" Ye swains, now hasten to the hazel bank. 

Where down yon dale, the wildly winding brook 

Falls hoarse from steep to steep. In close array. 

Fit for the thickets and the tangling shrub. 

Ye virgins come. For you their latest song 

The woodlands raise ; the clustering nuts for you 

The lover finds amid the secret shade ; 

And where they burnish on the topmost bough. 

With active vigour crashes down the tree. 

Or shakes them ripe from the resigning husk, — 

A glossy shower, and of an ardent brown 

As are the ringlets of Melinda's hair." 

Autumn. 

Words\vorth speaks with great dehght of the pleasures 
of nutting : 



HAZEL-NUT TREE. 



161 



" Among the woods 

And o'er the pathless rocks I forced ray way. 

Until at length I came to one dear nook 

Unvisitedj where not a broken bough 

Drooped with its withered leaves, ungracious sign 

Of devastation ! but the hazels rose 

Tall and erect, with milk-white clusters hung, 

A virgin scene ! — A little while I stood. 

Breathing with such suppression of the heart 

As joy delights in ; and with wise restraint. 

Voluptuous, fearless of a rival, eyed 

The banquet, — or beneath the trees I sate 

Among the flowers, and with the flowers 1 played ; 

********* 

********* 

* * * * Then up I rose. 

And dragged to earth each branch and bough with crash, 

And merciless ravage, and the shady nook 

Of hazels, and the green and massy bower 

Deformed and sullied, patiently gave up 

Their quiet being ; and unless I now 

Confound my present feelings with the past. 

Even then when from the bower I turned away 

Exulting, rich beyond the wealth of kings, 

I felt a sense of pain when I beheld 

The silent trees, and the intruding sky." 

Gay, describing some of the innocent incantations of 
the shepherds, makes one of his ruddy damsels say — 

Two hazel nuts I threw into the flame, 
And to each nut I gave a sweetheart's name ; 
This with the loudest bounce me sore amazed. 
That in a flame of brightest colour blazed. 
As blazed the nut so may thy passion grow : 
For 'twas thy nut that did so brightly glow." 

Gay's Shepherd's Week , 

M 



16^ 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Chatterton compares the colour of the Filbert to that 
of a lady's hair : 

Browne as the fylberte droppyng from the shelle, 
Browne as the nappy ale at Hocktyde game, 

So browne the crokyde rynges, that featlie fell 
Over the neck of the all beauteous dame." 

Battle of Hastings. 

The Hazel is well-known as a favourite haunt of the 
squirrel : 

" Upon whose nutty top 

A squirrel sits, and wants no other shade 
Than what by his own spreading tail is made ; 
He culls the soundest,, dext'rously picks out 
The kernels sweet, and throws the shells about." 

Cowley. 

We are told by Virgil, and Virgil is a great authority, 
that the Hazel has been, more honoured than the vine, 
the myrtle, or the bay itself : 

" Populus Alcidae, gratissima vitis laccho 
Formosae myrtus Veneri, sua laurea Phoebo ; 
Phyllis amat corylos ; illas dum Phyllis amabit. 
Nee myrtus vincet corylos, nee laurea Phoebi." 

JEclogue vii. 

Rendered by Dryden : 

" The poplar is by great Alcides worn ; 
The brows of Phoebus his own bays adorn ; 
The branching vine the jolly Bacchus loves : 
The Cyprian queen delights in myrtle groves ; 
"With hazel Phyllis crowns her flowing hair ; 
And while she loves that common wreath to wear. 
Nor bays, nor myrtle boughs with hazel shall compare." 

There is one great virtue in the Hazel-nut, which we 
have pleasure in making known to our readers. It is true 



HAZEL-NUT TREE. 163 

that taste differs with regard to personal beauty as in all 
things else ; and in the colom* of the eye, as in other 
beauties of person : some authors, indeed, have lauded 
the grey eye ; Chaucer appears to prefer this colour ; but 
poets in general are divided between the blue and the 
black. We are sorry we cannot give our readers a re- 
cipe to turn the eye blue ; but to those fond mothers who 
admire black, and have mourned over the grey eyes of 
their infant children, we recommend to burn to ashes the 
shells of hazel-nuts, and to apply them to the liinder pait 
of the head of the grey-eyed cliild. Tradition, who is 
aged, and should have experience, affirms that they will 
change the eyes from grey to black. 



M 2 



HOLLY BUSH. 



ILEX. 

ILieiBE.S. TETRAXDniA TETRAGYXIA. 

French) le houx, le grand housson, I'agron, le grand pardon, 
bois franc ; Italian, agrifoglio, alloro spinoso ; English, holly, 
holme, or hulver. 

The Common Holly, Ilex aquifolium, at full gro^^th, 
is generally from twenty to thirty feet high ; yet it 
is sometimes seen as high as sixty feet. The general ap- 
pearance of this tree is well knomi. When the Holly 
grows naturally, and is old, the upper part of the tree 
is clothed with entire leaves, without thorns, only ending 
in a sharp point. The flowers, which are of a dingy 
white, appear in May, in clusters of three, four, or five, 
and are succeeded by roundish berries, which, about 
Michaelmas, turn to a beautiful scarlet ; and these, when 
not eaten by the birds, will hang on great part of the 
winter. 

The Holly is a native of this country, and many other 
parts of Europe, of North America, Japan, Cochin- 
China, &c. 

" It grows so spontaneously in this part of Surrey,"" 
says Evelyn, " that the large vale near my own dwell- 
ing was anciently called Holmesdale. In Dungeness, in 
Kent, it grows even among the pebbles on the beach."' 

The Holly should be in every shrubbery or plantation, 
for the beauty of its shining evergreen leaves, and of its 
scarlet berries, will still remain when httle vegetation is 
to be seen : and if a few of the best varieties of variegated 



HOLLY BUSH. 



165 



Holly be intermixed with the plain, they will add to the 
beauty. 

This tree is excellent for a hedge or fence, and would 
be preferable to the hawthorn for the purpose, were it 
not for its slow growth while young, and the difficulty of 
transplanting it after infancy. "Is there under heaven,'" 
says Evelyn, " a more glorious and refreshing object of 
the kind than an impregnable hedge of about four hun- 
dred feet in length, nine feet high, and five in diameter ; 
which I can show in my now ruined gardens at Sayes 
Court (thanks to the Czar of Muscovy*), at any time of 
the year, ghttering with its armed and varnished leaves — 
the taller standards at orderly distances, blushing with 
their natural coral ? It mocks the rude assaults of the 
Aveather, beasts, or hedge-breaker."' 

" A hedge of holly thieves, diat would invade. 
Repulses like a growing palisade : 
AVhose numerous leaves such orient green invest 
As in deep winter do the spring arrest " 

Cowley. 

" Seven years,"" says Evelyn, " v/e wait for a quickset 
hedge ; it is Avorth staying thrice seven for this, which 
has no competitor."" 

The timber of the HoJly is in great esteem with the 
millwright, turner, and engraver ; it takes a fine polish, 
and is well adapted for several kinds of furniture. Miller 
mentions a room floored in compartments of holly and 

* The Czar, Peter the Great, resided at Mr. Evelyn's house, in 
order to be near the dock-yard at Deptford during his stay in 
England. The garden appears not to have improved under his 
care. Indeed it is said that the Emperor took great delight in the 
very elegant amusement of being wheeled in a barrow through the 
thick holly-hedges, which were the pride of the garden. 



166 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



mahogany, which had a very pretty effect. It is much 
used, as well as box, yew, whitethorn, &c. in the little 
toys and trinkets called Tunbridge-ware. It is also of 
much use in veneering, and is stained to imitate ebony. 

Of the green bark, boiled and laid in the damp to 
ferment, bird-lime is made. 

The varieties of the Common Holly are innumerable, 
and in the multiplicity of names, might vie with the 
tulip or hyacinth ; but a repetition of mere names would 
be of little interest to the reader : the chief varieties are 
the gold and the silver-edged, the hedge-hog, and that 
with fellow berries, the painted lady, the glory of the 
west, Cheyne^s Holly, &c. 

The Dahoon Holly, Ilex Dalioon^ produces no fruit in 
this country, where it was introduced in 1726. There 
are two species of Carolina, Ilex cassine, and Ilea' opaca, 
one of which is deciduous. 

The South Sea Holly, South Sea tree, or Evergreen 
Cassine (Ilex vomitorid)^ is scarcely hardy enough for 
our climate, and cannot be trusted in the open air till it is 
several years old. The leaves of these are about the size, 
texture and colour of those of the small-leaved Alaternus : 
it is a native of West Florida, Carolina, and some parts 
of Virginia, particularly near the sea. These leaves are 
preferred, as a substitute for tea, to those of the cassine 
or cassioberry bush, because they are less bitter. 

It is said that the Indians consider this tree as a panacea; 
at certain times of the year they hasten in droves to the 
coast, from a distance of three hundred miles; they 
make a fire upon the ground, and putting a kettle of 
water on it, they throw in a large quantity of these 
leaves, and, sitting round the fire, they begin to drink 
large draughts from a pint bowl which they have with 



HOLLY-BUSH. 



16T 



them : in a short tmie this occasions vomiting ; they re- 
peat this for two or three days, and then every one taking 
a bundle of the leaves away with him, they all return to 
their habitations. 

" This plant," says Miller, "is supposed to be the same 
as that which grows in Paraguay, w^here the Jesuits make 
a great revenue of the leaves: an account of which is 
given by iVIons. Frezier.*^ 

The Cape Holly (Ilci crocea), called by the natives 
Geelhoust, or Yellov>--wood, aifords excellent timber of 
a yellow colour, and close texture, very hke boxwood. 
It is much used in Cafiraria, as well for the beams and 
planks in building houses, as for various articles of house- 
hold furniture*. 

Southey has noticed the difference of the upper leaves 
in old Holly trees : 

" O Reader I hast thou ever stood to see 

The holly-tree ? 
The eye that contemplates it well perceives 

Its glossy leaves. 
Ordered by an Intelligence so wise. 
As might confound the atheist's sophistries. 

Below a circling fence its leaves are seen 

Wrinkled and keen ; 
Xo grazing cattle through their prickly round 

Can reach to wound ; 
But as they grow where nothing is to fear. 
Smooth and unarmed the pointless leaves appear. 

I love to view these things with curious eyes 

And moralize : 
And in this wisdom of the holly-tree 

Can emblems see 
Wherewith perchance to make a pleasant rhyme. 
One ^vhich may profit in the after-time. 

* Thunberg's Travels, vol. i. p. 109. 



168 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



ThuSj though abroad perchance I might appear 

Harsh and austere, 
To those who on my leisure would intrude 

Reserved and rude. 
Gentle at home amid my friends I'd be. 
Like the high leaves upon the holly-tree. 

And should my youth, as youth is apt I know. 

Some harshness show. 
All vain asperities I day by day 

Would wear away. 
Till the smooth temper of my age should be 
Like the high leaves upon the holly-tree. 

And as when all the summer trees are seen 

So bright and green. 
The holly leaves their fadeless hues display 

Less bright than they ; 
But when the bare and wintry woods we see. 
What then so cheerful as the holly-tree ? 

So serious should my youth appear among 

The thoughtless throng ; 
So would I seem among the young and gay 

More grave than they ; 
That in my age as cheerful 1 might be 
As the green winter of the holly-tree." 

Wordsworth also praises the Holly : 

(( Where leafless oaks towered high above, 
I sate within an under-grove 
Of tallest hollies, tall and green ; 
A fairer bower was never seen. 
From year to year the spacious floor 
With withered leaves is covered o'er. 
You could not lay a hair between : 
And all the year the bower is green. 
But see where'er the hailstones drop 
The withered leaves all skip and hop. 



HOLLY BUSH. 



169 



There's not a breeze — no breath of air — 
Yet here — and there— and everywhere — 
, Along the floor beneath the shade 
By these embowering hollies made : 
The leaves in myriads jump and spring. 
As if with pipes and music rare 
Some Robin Good-fellow were there ! 
And all those leaves in festive glee 
Were dancing to the minstrelsy." 

Wordsworth, vol. i. p. 240. 

W. Browne speaks of the Hoiiy as an enemy to the 
husbandman, at the same time commending it as a fence : 

Under the hollow hanging of this hill 

There was a cave cut out by nature's skill. 

Or else it seemed the mount did open 's breast. 

That all might see what thoughts he there possest. 

Whose gloomy entrance was environed round 

With shrubs that cloy ill husbands' meadow ground : 

The thick-growne hawthorne, and the binding bryer. 

The holly that outdares cold winter's ire : 

Who all intwinde, each limbe with lirabe did deale 

That scarce a glimpse of light could inward steale," 



HOENBEAM TREE. 



CARPINUS. 

CORYLIDE.E. MONCECIA POLYANDRIA. 

Carpinus frbm carpere, to crop. — French, cliarme;, charmille ; 
Italian, carpino ; English, hornbeam, hardbeam, horse-beech, horn- 
beech, wych-haze], or witch-hazel, and yoke-ehn. 

The leaf of the Hornbeam, Carphms hetulus^ is very 
similar to that of the elm (in which genus old Gerarde 
would fain have it placed) : it begins to appear about the 
end of March, and by the middle of April the tree is in 
full leaf ; towards the end of that month, it is in full 
blossom also. It retains the old leaves till driven off by 
the new. 

This tree is very common in many parts of England, 
but is so constantly pollarded by the country people, that 
it is seldom suffered to attain a handsome growth. When 
they escape the hands of these executioners, they will 
grow, especially in a stiff clayey soil, to a height of 
seventy feet, with large noble stems, perfectly straight 
and sound. 

Fawkes alludes to the regular growth of the Horn- 
beam hedge, in his Eramham Park : 

" Here spiry firs extend their lengthened ranks. 
There violets blossom on the sunny banks ; 
Here hornbeam hedges regularly grow. 
There hawthorn whitens, and wild roses blow." 

Martyn observes, that of late years this tree has only 



HORNBEAM TREE. 



171 



been cultivated " for underwood in the country, and in 
the nurseries to form hedges after the French taste ; for 
in most of their great gardens, their cabinets, &c. are 
formed of these trees, as are their trelhses and hedges 
which surround the plantations. But since these sort 
of ornaments have been banished from the English gar- 
dens, there has been little demand for these trees in the 
nurseries."" 

The Eastern Hornbeam, Carpinus orientalis^ is of 
humbler growth, and has smaller leaves. 

The Hop Hornbeam, so named from the form of its 
fruit, was first observed in Italy, is very common in Ger- 
many, and is said to grow in abundance in many parts of 
North America. It is of quicker growth than the com- 
mon Hornbeam, and sheds its leaves with the generality 
of deciduous trees. 

The Virginian Flowing Hornbeam, Carpinus Ameri- 
cana^ is of quicker growth than either of the former sorts: 
it sheds its leaves in autumn, about the same time with 
the elm, and during the season of its verdure has a hand- 
some appearance, being well clothed with leaves, which 
are of a deep green colour, similar to those of the long- 
leaved elm. 

The other kinds are, in this country, commonly budded 
on the Common Hornbeam ; which, however, is the 
best for cultivation, as it will grow to a larger size, and 
also will thrive upon cold, exposed, and barren hills, and 
resist violent winds better than most trees. The timber 
is tough and flexible, and v/hen suffered to grow large, 
may be converted to many useful purposes. Hitherto 
it has been used chiefly for turnery ware, tool-handles, 
yokes, &c. It is also an excellent fuel. 

Gerarde says, it was used to yoke oxen, as well by the 



172 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Romans in old times, as in his own time and country ; 
therefore, and from the form of the leaf, he calls it the 
Yoke Elm. He recommends the wood for arrows and 
shafts, and observes that it grows so hard and tough with 
age as to be more like horn than w-ood, and that for this 
reason it was called Hornbeam or Hardbeam. Evelyn 
says, it was termed Horse-beech, from the resemblance 
of the leaf to that of the beech tree ; from which, how- 
ever, it is very different. The beech leaf narrows, some- 
what like an egg, towards the foot-stalk ; whereas the 
leaves of the Hornbeam and of the elm are broader to- 
wards that end than the other. There is other-wise much 
similarity in all these leaves, as also in the birch leaf, but 
that it is smaller. The name of AVitch-hazel is peculiar 
to Essex ; the tree commonl}' called by that name is the 
broad-leaved Elm, also named Wych Elm. 

The German husbandman has a peculiar mode of 
erecting a fence of Hornbeam ; he plants the young trees 
in such a manner as that every two may be brought to 
intersect each other in the form of a St. Andi'ew's cross ; 
in the part v*^here they cross, he scrapes off the bark, and 
binds them closely together with straw ; the two plants 
thus connected form a sort of indissoluble knot, and push 
from thence horizontal slanting shoots which form a living 
palisado : a rural fortification, as Dr. Hunter terms it. 
These hedges being annually and skilfully pruned, -will in 
a fev/ years become a fence impenetrable in every part. 
It is not uncommon to see high roads in Germany thus 
fenced for miles together. 

Evelyn observes, that before the entries of many of the 
great towns in Germany they plant clumps of these 
trees, " to which they apply timber frames for the con- 
venience of the people to sit and solace in."" 



HORNBEAM TREE. 



ITS 



This delightful author occasionally indulges in such 
eloquent raptures in speaking of the works of nature, 
that it were difficult to forbear quoting. 

" That admirable espalier hedge in the long middle 
walk of the Luxembourg Garden at Paris, than which 
there is nothing more graceful, is planted of this tree ; and 
so is that cradle or close walk, with that perplexed canopy, 
which lately covered the seat in his ^lajesty's garden at 
Hampton Court, and as now I hear, they are planted in 
perfection at New Park, the delicious villa of the noble 
Earl of Rochester, belonging once to a near kinsman of 
mine, who parted v- ith it to King Charles the First, of 
blessed memory. An oblong square palisaded with this 
plant or the Flemish ornus, as is that I am going to de- 
scribe, and may be seen in that inexhaustible magazine 
at Brompton Park (cultivated by those two industrious 
fellow gardeners, Mr. London and Mr. Wise), affords 
such an umhraculum Jrondium, the most natural proper 
station and convenience for the protection of our orange 
trees, mp-tles, and other rare perennials and exotics, from 
the scorching darts of the sun, and heat of summer : they 
are so ranged and disposed as to adorn a noble area of 
a most magnificent Paradisian dining-room, to the top of 
hortulan pomp and bliss, superior to all the artificial fur- 
niture of the greatest prince's court. Here are the Indian 
narcissus, tuberoses, Japan hhes, jasmines, jonquils, peri- 
climena, roses, carnations, with all the pride of the par- 
terre ; intermixt between the tree cases, flowering vases, 
busts, and statues, entertain the eye, and breathe their 
redolent odours and perfumes to the smell. The golden 
fruit, the apples of the Hesperides, together with the 
delicious ananas, gratify the taste, while the cheerful 
ditties of canorous birds, recording their innocent amours 



174 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



to the murmurs of the bubbhng fountain, dehght the 
ear. At the same thue the charming accents of the fair 
and virtuous sex, preferable to all the admired com- 
posures of the most skilful musicians, join in concert with 
hymns and halleluiahs to the bountiful and glorious 
Creator, who has left none of the senses which he has not 
gratified at once with their most agreeable and proper 
objects." 

The wood of the Hornbeam is very inflammable, and 
will burn like a candle, for which purpose it was formerly 
used. In the north of Europe, the inner bark is used 
to dye yellow. 



HORSE-CHESTNUT TREE. 



^SCULUS. 

HIPPOCASTINE^. HEPTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 

Msculus, from esca, food. It was formerly named Castanea 
equina, from the similitude of the fruit to that of the common 
chestnut,, and from its being eaten by horses. Hippocastanum has 
the same signification : this was formerly the generic name : now 
it is only the specific name for the common Horse-Chestnut. 
French, the common kind^ marronier ; the others^ pavia : Italian^ 
the common kind, castagno d' India ; the other sorts, ippocastano. 

The common Horse-Chestnut (^JEscu'us hippocasta- 
num) is generally considered as one of the most orna- 
mental trees in our plantations. The branches of this 
tree, when it stands singly, are disposed in a beautiful 
form ; the large palmated leaves, which are composed of 
seven leaflets, gradually decreasing in size from the mid- 
dle one to the outer ones ; and their elegant drooping 
position, contrasted by the large upright pyramidal 
thyrsus of flowers, variegated towards the centre with 
yellow or red, are truly magnificent. 

" For in its honour prodigal nature weaves 
A princely vestment, and profusely showers 
O'er its green masses of broad palmy leaves. 
Ten thousand waxen pyramidal flowers ; 
And gay and gracefully its head it heaves 
Into the air, and monarch-like it towers." 

Ho Witt's Forest Minstrel. 



176 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



The capsule, or seed-vessel, is divided into three cells, 
in which lie the nuts, two of which are generally sacrificed 
to the w^elfare of their third companion ; these nuts are 
no less beautiful, when fresh, than is the tree that bears 
them : many of these nuts have the appearance of the 
most elegantly veined and finely pohshed mahogany. 

Martyn remarks, that this tree has not of late been so 
much planted in avenues and walks as formerly, on account 
of the early falling of the leaves, Avhich makes a htter 
under them, even from July till they all have fallen ; but 
notwithstanding this inconvenience, says he, the tree has 
great merit, for it affords a noble shade very early ; and 
during the time of flowering, no tree has more beauty. 

Another inconvenience attendino- this noble tree is, that 
it does not well resist violent and stormy winds ; yet it 
looks best when standing apart, where the branches have 
room to spread. The blossoms appear in May, or, as the 
poet will have it, in June ; and continue in beauty a 
month or more. 

" In June that chestnut shot its blossomed spires 
Of silver upward, 'mid the foHage dark, 
As if some sylvan deity had hung 
Its dim iimbrageousness with votive wreaths." 

D. M. MoiR.* 

Mr. Gilpin is no great admirer of this tree; indeed 
he rather quarrels with all large-leaved trees. " It forms 
its fohage,'" says he, " generally in a round mass, with 
little appearance of those breaks which contribute to give 
an airiness and lightness, at least a richness and variety, 
to the whole mass of foliage. This tree, however, is 

* See Time's Telescope for 1825, p. 258. 



HORSE-CHESTNUT THEE. 



177 



chiefly admired for its flower, which in itself is beautiful ; 
but the whole tree together in flower is a glaring object, 
totally inharmonious and unpicturesque. In some situ- 
ations, indeed, and among a profusion of other wood, a 
single Horse-Chestnut or two in bloom may be beautiful. 
As it forms an admirable shade, it may be of use, too, 
in thickening distant scenery, or in screening an object 
near at hand : for there is no species of foliage, howe\'er 
heavy, nor any species of bloom, however glaring, which 
may not be brought, by some proper contrast, to produce 
a good effect*." 

Dr. Aikin says, " its introduction here has been solely 
owing to its beauty ; in which, at the flowering season, it 
certainly excels every other tree that bears our chmate." 
Evel3ni, and his editor. Dr. Hunter, speak highly of its 
singular beauty. 

" I wish we did more universally cultivate the Horse- 
Chestnut,'' says Evelyn ; " which being easily increased 
from layers, grows into a goodly standard, and bears a 
most glorious flower, even in our cold country." 

" The Horse-Chestnut," observes Dr. Hunter, " is a 
tree of singular beauty ; the leaves are large, fine, and 
palmated, and appear very early in the spring. It is 
naturally uniform in its growth, always forming its head 
into a regular pai-abola. In the spring it produces long 
spikes of rich and beautiful flowers." 

The timber is not very valuable : it is reckoned very 
good for subterraneous water-pipes, for fuel, and for 
turnery-ware, for which Dr. Hunter informs us that it 
is valued in the north at sixpence a foot. 

Sheep, deer, and hogs feed greedily upon the nuts ; and 

* Gilpin's Forest Scenery, i. 61. 

N 



178 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



boiled, poultry are fed with them. In Turkey they are 
ground and mixed with the provender of horses ; wliich, 
according to Evelyn, is the origin of their name. When 
these nuts decav, they turn to a kind of jelly, wliich has 
been found a good substitute for soap in washing. The 
bark of the tree is used m tammiD; leather. 

The Horse-Chestnut is of very quick gi'owth : ]\lar- 
t}Ti mentions some raised from the nut, that, at twelve or 
foui'teen years of age, would shade several chairs under 
then- branches ; bemg also covered with flowers. 

The Horse-Chestnut was brought from the northern 
parts of Asia into Eui'ope, about the veai' 1550 ; about 
eight years later it was introduced into Menna. from 
whence it migrated to France and Italy ; but to us it 
came directly from the Levant. Gerarde, in his Herbal, 
speaks of it only as a foreign tree ; in Johnson's edition 
of that work, he says, " Horse-Chestnut groweth in 
Italy, and in sundry places of the east countries; it is 
now growing with ]\Ir. Tradescant, at South Lauibeth."' 
Parkinson says, our Christian world first had the 
knowledge of it fr*om Constantinople.'" He places it as a 
fruit-tree in his orchard, with the walnut and mulberry ; 
and how httle it was then known (1629) may be learned 
by his describing the fruit as sweet-flavoui-ed, roasted 
and eaten as the common chestnut. 

Tliis tree is perhaps as unsightly in the winter, when 
destitute of leaves, as it is beautiful in fuU verdure : the 
branches appear clumsy and faggot-Kke : at the ends of 
the branches, before the leaves shoot out, the buds become 
very tm'gid and large: from thence they sprout forth, 
and in three or four weeks the shoot is full grown : after 
that time it increases, indeed, in size and strength, but 
not in length. These shoots are sometimes a foot and a 



HORSE-CHESTNUT THEE. 



179 



half long, and the leaves in this space of time are fully 
expanded. No sooner have the flowers fallen than the 
buds begin to form for the succeeding year: they con- 
tinue swelhng till autumn, at which season they are 
covered with a thick tenacious juice, which defends the 
tender buds from the frost and rain of winter. Upon 
the first return of warmth in the spring, this juice melts 
and runs off, leaving the bud at liberty to open. The 
buds being always fonaied at the extremity of the 
branches, plainly indicates that they must not be short- 
ened, as the shoots for the ensuing year would so be en- 
tirely cut off. 

There are varieties of this tree in the nurseries, both 
with gold and with silver-striped leaves. 

The scarlet Horse-Chestnut, Msculus pavia, grows 
about twenty feet high ; it does not spread its branches 
to any great extent : the leaves are of a light green, op- 
posite, and on long red foot-stalks. The flowers grow 
at the ends of the branches, also upon long and naked 
foot-stalks, each sustaining four or five flowers : they are 
much smaller than in the common species, wholly red, 
tubulous, without any brim ; they blow in June, and are 
sometimes succeeded by fruit ; but it seldom comes to 
maturity in England. 

This tree is from Brazil, Carolina, and Florida ; Japan, 
and several parts of the East ; and was cultivated here in 
1712. 

Thunberg observed by the road-side near Copenhagen, 
" many fine avenues of Horse-Chestnut trees, the trunks 
of which had been wreathed, when young, into a spiral 
form at the bottom*.'" 

Thunberg's Travels, vol. i. page 3. 



ITEA. 



ITEA VIRGIXICA. 

RHODODENDRACEJE. PEXTAXDRIA MOXOGYXIA. 

Itea is derived from the Greeks and is so named from the swift- 
ness of its growth. 

The Virginian Itea is a shrub six or seven feet high 
at its full growth, sending out many branches from the 
bottom of the stem to the top : the leaves are alternate, 
slightly notched at their edges, hght green, and veined. 
At the extremity of the new shoots ai'e produced five 
erect spikes of white flowers, three or fom' inches long, 
wliich blow in the month of July. When this shrub is 
in vigour, it is entu'ely covered with blossoms in the 
flowering time, and is exceedingly handsome. It is a 
native of North America, and was first cultivated in 
England by Archibald Duke of Argyle, in 1744. 



IVY BUSH. 



HEDERA HELIX. 

CAPR1F0LIE.€. PEXTANDRIA MONOGYNIA 

French, lierre ; Italian, ellera. 

The common Ivy is a well known plant, unjustly 
considered as parasitical, the stem of which will support 
itself by an abundance of fibres, or holdfasts against 
trees or walls ; or, if no support be near, wdll creep along 
the groimd, the stalks throwing out roots as they run ; 
so that it is very difficult to eradicate it. While they 
trail upon the ground, or cling to any support, the stalks 
are slender and flexible, but when they have reached the 
top of that by which they rise, they become strong, and 
form large bushy heads : thus do they clothe and crown 
many a leafless stump with a beautiful and luxuriant 
verdure. The leaves of these bushy heads are larger, 
more of an oval shape than the lower leaves, and are not, 
like them, divided into lobes ; this diff'erence made some 
old botanists mistake them for difi*erent species. While 
the stalks creep, the Ivy never produces any blossom, 
and in this state it is called Barren or Creeping Ivy ; 
but when they surmount the support by which they 
have grown, they produce flowers at the end of every 
shoot ; these are of a yellowish or greenish white, growing 
in umbels or clusters, and are succeeded by berries, 
which become black before thev are ripe. At first the 



182 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



berry is round and succulent, with a purple juice ; but 
afterwards it becomes coriaceous, dry, and obscurely 
quinquangular, being divided into five cells. In this 
state it is called Climbing, or Berried Ivy. The trunk 
of an old Ivy is covered with an ash-coloured bark ; that 
of the young branches is of a green or purple colour. 
The leaves are alternate, evergreen, glossy, smooth ; 
while the plant creeps three, or five-lobed ; but when it 
quits its support, ovate, or egg-shaped. Linnaeus de- 
scribes them as first spear-shaped, then five-lobed, after- 
wards three-lobed, and lastly ovate; in this latter state 
it is called Poet's Ivy, Hedera poetica. The leaves, 
particularly on the younger branches, are often streaked 
with veins of white, and sometimes tinctured with red. 

The Ivy is free-born in every country of Europe, 
though in some it is not common : Limifjeus says it is 
rare in Sweden. Kalm says that he saw Ivy but once 
in North America, that was against a stone building, and 
apparently had been brought from Europe, and planted 
there. The Americans have an Ivy of their own, which 
has been brought to this country ; but it is a deciduous 
plant, and bears no comparison with the common Ivy of 
Europe. Thunberg observed jt in J apan, and remarked 
that the leaves were not lobed. 

With us, the Ivy begins to blossom in September, 
and being so late, affords food to bees, when there is 
little to be found abroad. The berries increase in size 
during the winter, and ripen about April, when they are 
eaten by wild pigeons, blackbirds, thrushes, &c. Black- 
birds and some others build their nests in the stump. 

Among the many strange fancies dreamed of old with 
regard to trees, it has been said, that five Ivy berries 



IVY BUSH. 



183 



beaten small, and made hot with some rose-water, in the 
rind of a pomegranate, being dropt into the ear, on the 
contrary side, will cure an aching tooth. 

The wood is soft and porous, so as to transmit liquids, 
if turned of a sufficient degree of thinness ; the roots are 
used by leather-cutters to whet their knives upon. " Of 
the roots of Ivy," says Evelyn, " which shrub may, 
with small industry, be made a beautiful standard, are 
made curiously pohshed and flecked cups and boxes, 
and even tables of great value."" 

Homer describes his heroes as drinking out of a cup 
made of Ivy-wood. 

The beechen cup of Alcimedon had a lid of I\y, 
carved with grapes : 

" The lids are ivy ; grapes in clusters lurk 
Beneath the carving of the curious work." 

Dry den's Virgil, pastoral iii. 

Sheep are fond of Ivy, and in severe weather it is 
a warm and wholesome food for them ; therefore the 
shepherds in the winter cut down branches for their 
flocks to browse on. Cato directs that cattle should be 
fed with it, in scarcity of hay. The ancients held Ivy in 
great esteem ; it was consecrated to Bacchus, who is repre- 
sented as crowned with it ; and was often twined with the 
laurel in the poefs wreath. When Bacchus was seized 
by the pirates, his presence was made manifest by many 
wondrous changes that took place in different parts of 
the vessel : 

For first;, a fountain of sweet smelling wine 
Came gushing o'er the deck with sprightly shine. 
And odours, not of earth, their senses took. 
The pallid wonder spread from look to look ; 



184 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



And then a vine- tree overran the sail. 

Its green arras tossing to the pranksome gale : 

And then an ivy, with a flov^rering shoot, 

Ran up the mast in rings, and kissed the fruit. 

Which here and there the dripping vine let down ; 

On every oar there was a garland crown." 

Leigh Hunt, translated from Homer. 

Milton speaks of " the Ivy-crowned Bacchus.^"* 
One great charm in the Ivy is, the attraction its 
berries offer to birds of song, which are constantly 
hovering about it with their cheerful harmony. But 
great as is the renown of this elegant shrub, it is charged 
with a most destructive and deceitful nature ; for while 
it clings fondly to the tree by which it has risen, it kills 
it in the manner of the bear, by the strictness of its 
embrace. On this account it has often been found 
necessary to destroy it. There is a good paper on this 
subject in the Transactions of the Linnaean Society, in 
the eleventh volume : the author of which, Mr. Repton, 
is inimical to its destruction, — for he justly observes, 
that it is highly ornamental, and useful to the trees ; 
and that it does not girt them nor rob them of their 
juices, as it derives the whole of its nourishment from its 
own roots in the ground, as is shown by the destruction 
of it, when its stem is cut through by the ignorant and 
prejudiced. Linnaeus affirms that it does no injury to 
buildings, but this it is not easy to allow; for we see 
that the branches will make their way into a crevice or 
defect in the wall, and enlarge it by the gradual in- 
crease of their bulk, as by the driving in of a wedge. 
Robert Bloomfield tells us, that the largest Ivy he ever 
saw was at Ragland Castle. " In this building, says 



IVY BUSH. 



185 



he, " a gigantic stem of Ivy has pushed away the fine 
fluted work of the kitchen window, and seems to set iron 
and stone at defiance The heavy accusations made 
against it have given rise to much morahsing upon the 
subject. 

See there the envious world portrayed 
In that dark look, that creeping pace ! 

No flower can bear the ivy's shade — 
No tree support its cold embrace. 

The oak that rears it from the ground. 

And bears its tendrils to the skies. 
Feels at his heart the rankUng wound, 

And in its poisonous arms he dies." 

Langhorne. 

Poets, however, more frequently take delight in laud- 
ing its beauty than in quarrelling with its vices. Few 
have noticed the various habits of its growth : how 

" When the oak denies her stay. 

The creeping ivy winds her humble way ; 

No more she twists her branches round, 

But drags her feeble stem along the barren ground." 

Lloyd. 

*^ In a sweet solitude, beside the flood. 

Is a green grove of willows, trunk-entwined 
With ivies climbing to the top, whose hood 
Of glossy leaves, with all its boughs combined. 
So interchains and canopies the wood 
That the hot sunbeams can no access find ; 
The water bathes the mead, the flowers around 
It glads, and charms the ear with its sweet sound." 

Wiffen's Garcilasso, p. 268. 

* Remains of Bloomfield, vol. ii. p, 25. 



186 



SYLVAN SKETCHES 



Spenser plants the Ivy in the Bower of Bliss : 

And over him. Art striving to compare 

With Nature, did an arbour green dispred. 

Framed of wanton ivy, ilow'ring fair ; 

Through which the fragrant eglantine did spred 

His pricking arras, en trailed with roses red. 

Which dainty odours round about them threw : 

And all within with flowers was garnished, 

That when mild Zephyrus emongst them blew. 

Did breathe out bounteous smells, and painted colours shew." 

SPlilNSER. 

He gives a very delightful picture of it in another 
passage : 

Emongst the rest, the clamb'ring yvie grew, 
Knitting his wanton arms with grasping hold. 
Lest that the poplar happely should rew 
Her brother's strokes, whose boughs she doth enfold 
With her lythe twigs, till they the top survew. 
And paint with pallid green her buds of gold." 

Spenser's Virgil's Gnat. 

The Ivy has certainly a very beautiful and picturesque 
appearance upon old buildings, particularly where they 
are too old to fear any injury it might do them ; where 
it often is seen hanging in luxuriant and heavy masses. 
As on the ruins of an old castle, abbey, or church : 

The little chapel with the cross above, 
Upholding wreaths of ivy- " 

Keats. 

The epithet reverend is very appropriate to the Ivy, 
which is a slow grower, and must be old where it crowns 
the tree it grows by : 



IVY BUSH. 



1ST 



Mosses, and reverend ivies serpentine 

That wreathe your odorous arms round beech and pine. 

And, climbing, crown their crest." 

Wiffen's Garcilasso. 

Virgil speaks of the black Ivy as an indication of a 
cold soil. Martyn observes in a note, that this poet, and 
many other ancient authors, speak of another plant, called 
White Ivy, which is quite unknown to us. Tournefort 
says, that in passing through the herb market at Con- 
stantinople, he bought some of the seeds of the Yellow- 
fruited Ivy, which is as common there as the common 
Ivy is at Paris. " Pliny informs us,"' continues he, 
" that it w^as the Golden -fruited Ivy w^hich was conse- 
crated to Bacchus, and destined to crown the poets : the 
leaves, as this author remarks, are of a livelier green 
than those of the common Ivy, and the bunches of gold- 
coloured berries give it a peculiar brilhancy." In another 
passage he observes, that Pliny, who gave to this Ivy 
the name of the Golden-fruited, had not seen the plant, 
])iit obtained his information from Theophrastus and 
Dioscorides. It appears to be the same which was gene- 
rally called the White Ivy. " For that which they call 
the Ivy of Thrace,'^ observes Tournefort, " we sav/ several 
of these plants on the coast of the Black Sea ; and it is 
not surprising that the Bacchantes should formerly have 
made use of them to adorn their heads or their thyrses, 
since all Thrace is covered v/ith these plants*.'" 

Tournefort appears to consider the Ivy of the ancients 
only as a variety of the Common Ivy. 

A heavv charge indeed may be made against a poet of 



* Touinefort's Travels, vol. ii. p. 2i6, 



188 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



our own times, for some lines which may tend to mislead 
posterity as to the true poetical Ivy. And unless the mat- 
ter be here explained, it were hard to say how many 
quartos would be necessary to make this matter clear in 
after times. 

It has been observed that the leaves of the Poet's Ivy 
are egg-shaped ; yet here is one poet receives an Ivy 
crown from another poet, and he remarks 

" ^ How they spread 

With their broad angles, like a nodding shed 
Over both eyes !" 

NoAv this does not describe the poet's Ivy, yet he as- 
sures us it was with that Ivy he was crowned, and from 
its luxuriance we might well believe it ; probably the two 
kinds were intertwined : 

It is a lofty feehng, yet a kind, 

Thus to be topped with leaves; — to have a sense 

Of honour-shaded thought, — an influence 

As from great Nature's fingers, and be twined 

With her old sacred verdurous ivy-bind. 

As though she hallowed with that sylvan fence 

A head that bows to her benevolence. 

Midst pomp of fancied trumpets in the wind." 

Leigh Hunt's Sonnets*. 

Let it then be made known to posterity in general, 
that 

Pallid ivy, building his own bower," 

is but ambitiously striving after the title poetical, which 
it does not attain until it has reached the top, and roofed 
the bower. 

* See Foliage, cxxvi. 



IVY BUSH. 



189 



We will conclude this article with the following sonnet 
by our " Village MinstreW'' Clare : 

Dark creeping Ivy, with thy berries brown, 
That fondly twists' on ruins all thine own. 
Old spire-points studding with a leafy crown 
Which every minute threatens to dethrone ; 
With fearful eye I view thy height sublime. 
And oft with quicker step retreat from thence 
Where thou, in weak defiance, striv'st with Time, 
And hold'st his weapons in a dread suspense. 
But, bloom of ruins, thou art dear to me. 
When, far from danger's way, thy gloomy pride 
W reathes picturesque around some ancient tree 
That bows his branches by some fountain-side : 
Then sweet it is from summer suns to be. 
With thy green darkness overshadowing me." 



JUDAS 



TREE. 



CERCIS. 

LEGUMIN0S.5. DECAXDEIA 3I0X0GYXIA. 

The botanical name of this tree is from the Greek, and signifies 
a little sheath. The French call it gainier. which has the same 
signification ; andarbre de Judee ; as we call it Judas tree; because 
it is said Judas hanged himself upon this tree, which has also 
been reported of the elder tree. The Spaniards, on account of its 
beauty, or as Gerarde terms it, its " braveness/' call it the tree of 
love, rather contradictory with the last-mentioned name. 

The European Judas tree, Cercis sWiquastium^ will 
grow twenty feet Mgli, dividing into many in-egular 
branches ; the bark is dark brown, the leaves ai'e of a 
pale green on the upper, of a greyish colour on the under 
side ; the flowers are papihonaceous, of a bright purple, 
and very beautiful ; they come out in the spring in large 
clusters on every side of the branches, and often of the 
stem also, and are in full blow before the leaves have at- 
tained half their size. These are succeeded by long flat 
pods, containing each one row of seeds : but in this 
country the pods are seldom seen upon the standard 
trees, because the birds commonly pick off the flowers as 
soon as thev are full blowai. Where they are planted 
against the wall, they will produce pods, which in waim 
seasons ripen very well. This tree deserves a place in 
every shrubbery or pleasure-garden, being indeed sin- 
gularlv handsome ; when of a good size, it is so pro- 
ductive of flowers as to be sometimes closelv covered 



JUDAS TREE. 



191 



with them, and the shape of the leaves, somewhat hke 
those of the cyclamen, helps also to make a pretty 
variety in the summer. When planted as a standard, 
this tree blossoms in ^Mav, but against a wall it will be 
some weeks earlier. The wood is beautifully veined with 
black and green ; and taking a fine poHsh, may be con- 
verted to many uses. The flowers have an agreeable 
poignancy, and are eaten in salads. 

There are two varieties of this tree, one with flesh- 
coloured, and one with white blossoms, but they camiot 
compare with the first in beauty. It is a native of the 
Levant, Spain, South of France, Italy, Sec. and was cul- 
tivated by Gerarde in tliis country, in 1596. 

The American Judas tree, Ceixis Canadeu-is, grows 
naturally in North America, where it is called Red-bud 
tree, from the red flower-buds appearing in the spring 
before the leaves. This seldom exceeds twelve feet in 
height in this country, but in its native soil grows much 
higher. The branches are weaker than those of the for- 
mer mentioned kind ; the leaves are downy, and pointed 
at the end ; the flowers smaller and not so handsome, 
but the tree is equally hai'dy. 

The blossoms are eaten by the inhabitants of America 
in salads, and the French in Canada pickle them. The 
wood is similar to that of the Common Judas tree : the 
young branches dye wool of a fine nankin colour. This 
species was not introduced here till about the year 17S0. 



JUNIPER BUSH. 



JUNIPERUS. 

CUPRESSIDEiE. DICECIA MONADELPHIA. 

French, genexrier ; Italian, ginei^vo, ginehro. 

There are many species of Juniper in our plantations, 
though some of them are also called by other names. The 
Spanish Juniper, Juniper us thurifera, grows thirty feet 
high, and sends out branches, which form a sort of py- 
ramid : the berries, when ripe, are very large and black. 
This was cultivated by Mr. Miller in 1759- 

The Bermudas Juniper, Juniper us Bermudiana, also 
called the Bermudas Cedar, has very short leaves, upon 
four-cornered branches ; the berries are of a dark red 
colour, inclining to purple. The wood has a strong 
and agreeable odour, and was formerly in great esteem 
for wainscoting rooms and for furniture. It is of a red- 
dish colour, and is commonly known in this country by 
the name of Cedar-wood. It is this which is so much in 
use for holding blacklead pencils. It is a lasting timber, 
as may be seen by the wainscoting, staircases, &c. in 
many old mansions. In old times it was common to 
have one room wainscoted with this timber, that bore 
the appellation of the Cedar-room ; such are often de- 
scribed by Mrs. RadclifFe. 

This was probably the Cedar described by Homer, in 
the cave of Calypso, as shedding a sweet perfume when 
Mercury alighted there : 



JUNIPER BUSH. 



193 



" And now arriving at the isle, he springs 
Oblique, and landing with subsided wings, 
Walks to the cavern 'twixt the tall green rocks. 
Where dwelt the goddess with the lovely locks. 
He paused ; and there came on him, as he stood, 
A smell of citron, and of cedar- wood. 
That threw a perfume all about the isle ; 
And she within sat spinning all the while. 
And sang a lovely song, that made him hark and smile." 

Odyssey, book v. translated by L. Hunt. 

The Bermudas Cedar was first cultivated in England 
in the year 1700, by Lord Clarendon. 

The Chinese Jumper, Juniperus Chinensis, is a mere 
shrub. 

The common savine, Juniper sabina, French savinier^ 
cedre a feiiilles de cypres, Italian sahina, is a native of 
the Levant and of the South of Europe. In this country- 
it is from three to five feet high at full growth. The 
leaves are short, the berries of the same colour as those 
of the common Juniper, but smaller. The whole plant 
has a strong unpleasant scent when handled. There is a 
variety with variegated leaves. Turner speaks of two 
kinds, a larger and a smaller, of which he had seen the 
latter in England, and the former in a " preacher's gar- 
den in Germany Professor Pallas says, that in the 
Chersonesus Taurica it is often seen with a trunk a foot 
in diameter. 

Tournefort says, that in some places this is burnt as 
common fuel : " L'isle d'Amorgos manque de bois ; on 
n'y brule que de Lentisque, et du Cedre a feuilles de 
cypres, que la feu devore en un instant*." " The isle of 
Amorgos has little wood; they burn nothing there but 
Lentiscus and the common savine, which the flames de- 

* Tournefort's Travels, vol. i. p. 287. 

o 



194 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



vour in an instant." He says that the Greeks vise this 
wood often when they are fishing : burning it at night to 
attract the fish by the Hght*. The wood does not grow 
on the island, but is brought from Caloyero, Cheiro, 
and other places in the vicinity. 

The Red Cedar, Juniperus Virginiana, is a native 
not only of North America, but also of the West India 
islands, and of Japan. It is one of the largest timber- 
trees in Jamaica. The berry is blue; the bark thin, 
and breaks off in large pieces. The v* ood is of a reddish 
brown, close and firm, shining, and very odoriferous, 
like the Bermudas Juniper. Like that, too, it is used 
for wainscoting rooms, making escritoires, cabinets, &c., 
cockroaches and other insects dishking the smell of it. 

W. Browne, enumerating many trees, speaks of the 

^' Juniper, where wormes ne'er enter." 

This, however, is contradicted by naturahsts, who 
maintain that worms make great havoc with this wood. 

This tree is called the Red Cedar in North America, 
to distinguish it from a kind of cypress (Cupressus, 
tliyoides) which they call the White Cedar. There is a 
variety of this species, called the Carohna Cedar. This 
species was cultivated in England in 1664. This may 
probably be the tree described by Captain Stedman as 
the Surinam Cedar. He says, though it bears the name 
of Cedar, it is different from the cedars of Lebanon: 
that " the Surinam Cedar grows also to a great height, 
but is principally esteemed because the wood is never 
eaten by worms or other insects, on account of its great 
bitterness : it has also an agreeable smell, and is there- 

* An interesting description of this mode of fishing, as practised 
in America, is given in The Pioneers." 



JUNIPER BUSH. 



195 



fore used in preference to most others for making chests, 
cupboards, lockers, and all sorts of joinery ; besides which 
it is employed in making the tent-barges, and other boats. 
The colour of the timber is a pale orange ; it is both 
hard and Hght, and from the trunk exudes a gum, not 
unlike the gum arable, which is transparent, and diffuses 
a most agreeable odour 

This does not, however, agree with the Virginian 
Juniper in the colour of the wood. This author informs 
us that the houses in Paramaribo are never papered or 
plastered, but are beautifully wainscoted with Cedar, 
Brazil, or Mahogany-wood f. 

The common Juniper, Jimiperus Communis^ seldom 
exceeds three feet in height : the leaves are bright green 
on one side, and gray on the other: the berries which 
grow in the axils of the leaves are dark purple; they 
remain two years on the tree. 

It is common in all the northern parts of Europe ; in 
valleys, or on hills ; on open sandy plains, or moist en- 
closed woods ; in fertile or in barren soils. In England, 
it is chiefly found on open downs, in a chalky or a sandy 
soil. In the south of Europe it is less common, growing 
only in the more elevated situations. 

Though its growth is so very humble in a wild state, 
it will grow fifteen or sixteen feet high if planted in a 
good soil. The wood is hard and durable ; the bark 
may be made into ropes. Gin is well known as being 
flavoured by the berries of this shrub. 

There is a variety of the common, called the Swedish 
Juniper, a native of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway : 

* Stedman's Surinam, vol. i. p. 347. 
t Ihid. vol. ii. p. 300. 

o % 



196 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



the leaves are narrower, and not so close together, and 
the berries are larger than those of the common J miiper : 
it grows higher, too, than tliat does in a wild state. 

The Brown-berried Juniper, Junipcrus O.vijcedriis, 
which the French call Le Cade ; the Italians, Ginepro 
rosso^ Red Juniper ; is a native of Spain, Portugal, and 
the south of France. It otows ten or twelve feet hio;h, 
and is branched all the way : the berries are of a red- 
bro\m colour, of the size of a hazel-nut, and ver^- hand- 
some, vrhen in plentv. This was cultivated in England 
bv Ur. 3Jiller in 1739- 

The Phoenician Jumper, Juniper Phcenicia, also 
called the Phcenician Cedar, grows in the form of a 
pyramid : the leaves on the upper branches are dark 
green ; those of the lower have a grevish hue ; the 
berries, when ripe, are of a pale yellow. This was in- 
troduced into England in 1683. 

The Lvcian Juniper, Jiiniperus Li/cia, more com- 
monly called the Lvcian Cedar, is a native of the south 
of France, the Levant, and Siberia : it is very similar- to 
the Savin, differing chiefly in the slenderness of the 
shoots, and in the leaves being less pointed, and not so 
clustered together. This was cultivated bv Mr. Miller 
in 1759. 

Some think the Cedar mentioned by Virgil, in the 
second and third Georgics, was the Lycian Cedar, but it 
remains uncertain : whichever it was, he speaks of it as 
used for building, and as odorous : 

" dant utile lignum 

Xavigiis pinos, domibus cedrunique cupressosque." 

Georgic ii. 

The pine affords wood useful for ships^ the cedar and the 
cypress, for houses." 



JUNIPER BUSH. 



19T 



Disce et ouoratam stabulis accendere cedruni 

Georgic iii. 

" Learn also to burn the odorous ccdar in your folds." 

Martyn's Translation. 

AVhatever the Cedar of Virgil may have been, it was 
certainly not the Cedar of Lebanon, and as certainly is 
understood to have been a species of Juniper. ^lay 
translates this pa^ssage — 

But learn to burn within your sheltering rooms 
Sweet Jumper." 

The smoke of Cedar was supposed bv the Romans to 
drive away serpents. 

Theoplirastus describes a Cedar as oTov\-ing in Syria, 
so large that tlii*ee men could not encompass one : this 
is generally understood to mean the Phoenician Cedar, 
sinc€ he describes it as bearing a berrv, not a cone*. 

The virtues of some species of the Juniper are very 
considerable, more particulai'lv of the common Juniper : 
sugar may be obtained from the berries ; the Swedes 
prepare a beer from them ; and the Laplanders use a 
decoction of them as we use tea or coffee. A wine is 
prepared from them also, called Juniper wine , and thev 
are in manv cases found efficacious in medicinal pre- 
parations, as also are the voung shoots, and the wood. 

The Savin and the Lvcian Juniper are also useful in 
medicine. 

Mart\Ti says that the gTim-resin, called Oi'iba/ium, is 
supposed to be the incense formerly used by the ancients 
in their religious ceremonies, though not the substance 
known bv that name in the shops. It is much em- 



* Sec Martyn's Virgil, p. 202. 



198 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



ployed by the Roman CathoKcs in their chapels, for 
similar uses : when bui'ned. it diffuses a very fragrant 
smell. Tliis olibanum, or true frankin cense, has been 
supposed to be the produce of the Lycian Juniper, but 
that plant does not afford any resin. The ohbanum now 
sold in the shops is the produce of the Boswellia serrata, 
or Salai tree of India. The name of the gum seems to 
be a contraction of oleum Libani. The resin of the 
Norway spruce fir is sold under the name of common 
frankincense. Salmon says the ohbanum sold a century 
ago was so entirely similar to the resin he had lumself 
collected from the beri^y-beanng cedar, or Juriperus 
Phcenicea, that when mixed, they could not be separated 
by picking. 

Dr. Clarke speaks of frankincense as the production of 
the Acacia Vera : " The Gum Arabic Acacia,'' says he, 
" or Mimosa ISilotica^ also called the Acacia Vera, pro- 
duces the frankincense. It grows in great abundance at 
Cairo : the gum is gathered in yast quantities from trees 
growing near the most northern hdij of the Red Sea at 
the foot of Mount Sinai, and called Thus by the dealers 
in Egypt, from Thur and T/zor, which is the name of a 
harbour in that bay ; thereby being distingTUshed from 
the gum arabic, which comes from Suez. ' These gums,' 
says Hasselquist, ' differ in other particular's besides 
their locahties ; the first being hmpid and colom'less, the 
latter less pellucid, and of a brown, or dirty yellow co- 
lour. We purchased a considerable quantity of the 
wliite gum. The fragrant odour diffused in burning it 
is well known ; but its operation as an enhyener of the 
spirits in persons of weak health, does not seem to have 
been much regarded. Perhaps the pleasing antidote it 
affords to the effects of foul air in crowded assembly 



JUNIPER BUSH. 



199 



rooms may possibly hereafter give it a place among the 
luxuries of London and Paris*.' " 

Spenser alludes to the humble growth of the Juniper 
at the same time that he describes the lofty stature of 
the Cedar : 

" From lowest Juniper, to Cedar tall." 

Hall says that the J uniper Bush is almost everywhere 
to be met with about the roots of the Highland hills, 
and observes that it has one property of the fig tree, that 
it has alv/ays two crops of berries on it-f. 

Captain Franklin tells us that the fruit of the Common 
Juniper is called by the Crees, Caw caw quew meena, 
Crow-berry]:. 

It has been observed that the Swedes prepare a beer 
from the Juniper ; a custom which appears common to 
Norway also. Brookes tells us, that while in Norway, 
he witnessed the peasants' method of brewing, which 
consists, says he, " merely in a simple infusion of barley 
and the young and tender shoots of the Juniper in 
warm water ; which produces a weak, though not un- 
pleasant, beverage §.'" 

This author also informs us that a custom, which before 
the use of carpets was common in England, is still general 
in Norway, — that of strewing the floor with Juniper : 
this has been common to many parts of Europe. 

" On entering my little chamber, I was agreeably 
surprised to find every thing exceedingly neat and clean. 
The floor was strewed, as is the custom in Norway, with 

* Clarke's Travels, vol iii. p. 51. 

t Hall's Travels in Scotland, p. 433. 

X Journey to die Polar Shores. 

§ Brookes' Sweden and Norway, p. 131. 



wo 



SYLVAN SKETCHES, 



tops of the Juniper, which diffused a dehghtful fragrance 
around, in the most agreeable manner inviting sleep*/' 

We learn both from this author and from Dr. Clarke, 
that the same custom prevails in Sweden. 

In this country, the strewing of Juniper appears to 
have been confined to persons of rank or fortune, while 
persons of inferior consideration were content with rushes. 
The use of rushes for this purpose is noticed repeatedly 
in the works of Ben Jonson, and of Beaumont and 
Fletcher. Dryden, too, alludes to this custom in his 
version of Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale : 

" Her parlour-window stuck with herbs around. 
Of savoury srael], and rushes strew'd the ground." 

Fairfax gives the Juniper a bad character, in his 
translation of Tasso : the tree is not mentioned in this 
passage in the original : 

" Sweet Juniper, whose shadow hurteth sore :" 

Canto iii. 

The poet has, nevertheless, great and ancient authority 
for what he says : 

" Now let us rise, for hoarseness oft invades 
The singer's voice, who sings beneath the shades. 
From juniper unwholesome dews distil. 
That blast the sooty corn, the withering herbage kill.'' 
Dkyden's Virgil, Eel. x. 



* Brookes' Sweden and Norway, p. 131. 



LARCH TREE. 



PINUS LARIX. 

CONIFEE.i;. MONCECIA MONADELPHIA. 

French, meleze ; Italian, larice. 

The Common or White Larch, P'lmis Larix, is of 
quick growth, and will reach to the height of fifty feet. 
The leaves are long and narrow, growing in clusters from 
one point like tassels ; and these clusters are placed al- 
teraately upon the branches ; they are light green, and 
fall off in the autumn. In this respect, the Larch differs 
from all other trees of this genus, which are evergreens. 
The branches are slender, and droop at the end : the 
cones are about an inch long, shaped like an egg ; their 
tops are sometimes tinged with bright purple, in others 
they are quite white ; but the difference is merely acci- 
dental, and in no way affects the seeds they contain. 

There are two varieties of this tree, one a native of 
America, the other of Siberia : the latter requires a 
colder chmate ; it is apt to die here in the summer, espe- 
cially if planted in a dry soil. Of the American variety, 
the branches are more slender than those of the Common 
European Larch ; the leaves are narrower, more tender, 
glaucous, and the outer ones in each cluster shorter than 
the inner ; whereas in the Common Larch, they are of 
equal length. The bark inclines to yellow in the Ame- 
rican variety ; in the common sort, it is an ash-coloured 



202 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



gray ; the cones of the American, too, are not more than 
one-third the size of those of the European kind. 

The Common Larch is a native of the South of 
Europe, and of Siberia : from Parkinson's Paradisus, it 
appears to have been cukivated here in 1629; but he 
speaks of it as " rare, and nursed up but with a few, and 
those only lovers of varieties."" Evelyn murmurs at the 
neo^lect sho^m to a tree iiourishino^ so well here : "A 
tree of good stature,'^ says he, not long since to be seen 
about Chelmsford in Essex, sufficiently reproaches our 
not cultivating so useful a material for many purposes 
where lasting and substantial timber is required. We 
read of beams of no less than an hundred and twenty 
feet in length made out of this goodly tree." 

The Black Larch is a native of North America ; it 
is of a darker colour than the Common Larch, and, com- 
paratively with that, a stranger in this country : it does 
not grow so large as the European Larch, but it serves 
to increase variety, and v>^ill endure the climate boldly. 

In Switzerland, where Larch trees abound, and they 
have little other wood, they build most of their houses, 
and make the chief part of their furniture, of its timber ; 
of which some is white, some red : the latter is most 
esteemed. Some suppose the redness to be occasioned by 
the quantity of turpentine contained in it, and to be pe- 
cuhar to old trees. The boards, cut into shingles of 
a foot square, are often used to roof houses instead of 
tiles. When first laid they are xery white, but in two 
or three years the resin being drawn out by exposure to 
the sun, fills up all the joints, and spreads over the sur- 
face ; and, being hardened by the air, becomes a smooth, 
black, and shining varnish, impenetrable either by wind 



LARCH TREE. 



203 



or rain. These roofs are, however, very combustible, 
and great damage has been done by fire in villages so 
built, on which account the people are obliged by law to 
build the houses at a certain given distance, one from 
the other. 

Larch wood has been supposed by many persons to be 
impenetrable by fire ; and a story is related of a castle 
besieged by Cgesar, w^hich, from the liberal use of Lai'ch, 
was, at least, verv difficult to consume. Evelyn quotes 
from Caesar the follo-uang words, which are sufficiently 
decisive : 

'''Et robusta larix, igiii impenetrabile lignum." 
" And the strong larch wood^ which fire cannot penetrate." 

There appears to be some truth in the notion that it 
will long resist fire, turning black long before it takes the 
flame. Several bridges were built of tliis timber by Ti- 
berius, some think on this account. The forum of Au- 
gustus, at Rome, was built with it ; and Vitruvius re- 
gretted that there was not a greater plenty of it to make 
joists. Evelyn says, it is so transparent, that when cabins 
made of the thin boards have lighted candles in them in 
the darkness of night, people at a distance would imagine 
them to be on fire. This witer also mentions a ship 
found some years since in the Numidian Sea, twelve 
fathoms under water, which was chiefly built of Larch 
and c\^ress, so hardened, as long to resist the fire or the 
sharpest tool. " Nor had any part of it perished,'"' says 
he, " though it had lain upwards of fourteen hundi'ed 
years submerged.'' 

" Larch v>^ood,"" says Dr. Anderson, " is possessed of 
so many valuable quahties, that to enumerate the whole 
would appear extravagant hyperbole. To say much in a 



204 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



few words, wherever strength and durability are required, 
however exposed to sun, wind, or water, the Larch will 
be found far superior to oak itself. But although it has 
been much used for ship-building, it has been found at 
Venice, that it is better to use it only for the lighter 
parts of the upper works, not where massy pieces of tim- 
ber are required, on account of its vveight. It takes an 
excellent polish, and is valuable to the turner. Among 
other uses, let it not be forgotten, that it has been the 
connnon material for painters' palettes, and that, before 
the use of canvas, it vras the very substance upon which 
Raphael and other famous artists painted their celebrated 
pictures." 

]\Ir. Martyn makes copious extracts from Dr. An- 
derson's account of the Larch, in his Essays on Agri- 
culture, in AA'hich there is scarcely any purpose to which 
wood of any kind can be applied, for which he does not 
recommend Larch wood. With regard to its taking fire, 
he observes that where the masses are large, even if a fire 
be placed on the bare wood, though it will be slowly 
corroded by it, yet, unless in pai'ticular circumstances, it 
cannot be made to flame so as to communicate it to other 
bodies. 

Larch wood is used liberally in the buildings at Ve- 
nice, " especially,"' says EvehTi, " about the palaces in 
Piazza San IMarco." 

The Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manu- 
factures, and Com.merce, in London, in the year 1788, 
gave three gold medals, and a premium of SQL for plant- 
ing Larch, and making knov,!! the many useful purposes 
of its timber. They have offered both honorary and 
pecuniary rewards for its propagation. Of late years 
there have been made many plantations of Larch, and it 



LARCH TREE. 



205 



is supposed that, were it cultivated in sufficient quantities, 
it would supersede the necessity of sending to Norway at 
an annual expense of many thousand pounds for timber. 

In the year 1796, one nurseryman in Edinburgh 
raised above five milKons of Larches, and the Duke of 
Athole for some years planted two hundred thousand 
annually. 

Venice turpentine is obtained from the Larch by 
boring a hole with an augur about two feet above the 
ground, till it reaches half way to the centre of the tree ; 
into this hole is inserted a small pipe, through which the 
turpentine flows into vessels placed for its reception. 
This process is continued from the end of May to the 
end of September, when the turpentine is pressed 
through a cloth to purify it. It is not thought worth 
while to begin to collect the turpentine from a tree until 
it has attained the size of a foot in diameter; and from 
that time, for forty or fifty years, if the tree continues in 
vigour, it will yield seven or eight pounds of turpentine 
annually. This turpentine is not now known in England, 
a composition made by dissolving yellov/ rosin in oil of 
turpentine being sold in its stead. 

Old Larches produce a fungus, which is called Agaric ; 
this is in some places used medicinally ; and, with the 
roots of Gallimn, for dying the hair of rein-deer red. 
It has a saponaceous quality, and women in Siberia 
often wash themselves and their linen v/ith it. 

The Siberian ermine-hunters carry about with them a 
kind of yeast or ferment for preparing the acid liquor 
which they call quass ; this is often spoiled by the cold, 
in which case, they scrape off the albumen, or half- 
formed wood, between the wood and the bark of the Larch, 
which is very juicy and sweet, put it in water over the 



206 



SYI.YAN SKETCHES 



fire for an hour, mix it with rye-meal, bury the dough 
in the snow, and in twel\ e hours they have a ferment 
ready for use *. 

There is also a gum and a manna obtained from the 
Larch. The manna is found in the south of France, and 
is there called Manna de Briangon : it is white, concrete 
and sweet, like fine new honey. It is rare, and met with 
only in little drops that adhere to the leaves, so that it 
would be difficult to collect a pound of it. This manna 
has been found in Russia also. 

The gum is afforded only under certain circumstances ; 
when the woods are on fire, y>diich frequently happens in 
Russia, the Larches ai^e sometimes burned next the side 
whence the fire came, to the height of several feet. If 
the wood happens to be scorched to the pith, the inner 
part exudes a dry reddish gum, which is called Orenburgh 
gum. It is used in medicine by the Russians, and the 
native mountaineers masticate it to fasten their teeth, as 
the ladies in the East use mastick. They also fasten 
their bows, &c. v.dth it. 

The Larch is not much indebted to our poets for 
reputation, although its beauty is such as to have recom- 
mended to the frequent attention of Mrs. Radcliffe, who 
not only introduces it very frequently in her beautiful 
and romantic landscapes, but repeatedly refers to its use 
in wainscoting, &c. both the AVhite and the Black 
Larch. In the Mysteries of Udolpho, speaking of the 
Count de Villefort, she says, " He y\as himself going to 
strike upon the door, when he observed its singular 
beauty, and withheld the blow. It appeared on the first 
glance to be of ebony, so dark and close was its grain, 



See Pallas's Flora Rossica. 



LARCH TREE. 



207 



and so high its pohsh ; but it proved to be only of 
Lai'ch wood of the growth of Provence, then famous for 
its forests of Lai'ch. The beautv of its pohshed hue, and 
of its dehcate carvings, determined the count to spare his 
door, and he returned to that leading^ from the back 
stau'-case 

It has been observed that the Larch is in abundance 
in some parts of Switzerland where there are few other 
trees ; it is often found in places comparatively barren. 
Mrs. Radchffe in the following passage gives a striking 
picture of one of these scenes : 

" The scene of baiTenness was here and there inter- 
rupted bv the spreading branches of the Larch and 
cedar, which threw their gloom over the chfF, or athwart 
the torrent that rolled in the vale. No hving creature 
appeared, except the izard scrambhng among the rocks, 
and often hanging upon points so dangerous that fancy 
shrunk from the view of them -f-.'' 

The scene here described is amono; the Pvrenees, in 
the vicinity of some of the loveliest spots ever dra^vn by 
pen, or pencil, or even by the hand of Nature herself ; 
so greatly does she delight to connect beautv with gloom. 
This union has been particularly noticed by a modern 
author : 

" This hut was very old ; that part of it which was 
built of stone was covered with moss, hchens, and wall- 
flowers, whose beautv and scent appeared ahen to the 
gloom around : But amidst desolation and horror. Nature 
loves to place the lovely and excellent, that man, vie^nng 
the scene, may not forget that she, the mother, dwells 
everywhere;!:.'' 

* Vol. iii. p. 170. t Vol. i. p. 41. % Valperga, vol. iii. p. 2. 



S08 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Ben Jonson speaks of the gum or the turpentine of the 
Larch, as being used in witchcraft, as Hemlock, Night- 
shade, &c. : — A witch answers her companions — 

Yes, I have brought (to help your vows) 
Horned-poppy, cypress-boughs, 
The fig-tree wild^ that grows on tombs. 
And juice that from the larch-tree comes. 
The basilisk's blood, and the viper's skin : 
And now, our orgies let's begin 

Lucan includes the " gummy Larch," among the 
articles burned to drive away serpents •\. 

Larch has of late been applied to the purpose of ship- 
building, and with success. Some think that it will, in 
time, supersede the Norway fir. In proportion as this 
timber is found useful, it must become profitable, and 
consequently plantations of Larch will be likely still to 
spread ; to the great annoyance, as it appears, of Mr. 
Wordsworth. He seems to have a strange dislike to this 
fine tree. " Larch and fir plantations," says he, " have 
been spread, not merely with a view to profit, but in 
many instances for the sake of ornament. To those who 
plant for profit, and are thrusting every other tree out of 
the way to make room for their favourite, the Larch, I 
would utter first a regret that they should have selected 
these lovely vales for their vegetable manufactory, when 
there is so much barren and irreclaimable land in the 
neighbouring moors, and in other parts of the island, 
which might have been had for this purpose at a far 
cheaper rate. And I would also beg leave to represent 
to them that they ought not to be carried away by flat- 
tering promises from the speedy growth of this tree ; be- 



* Masque of Queens. t See Rowe's Lucan, book ix. 



LARCH THEE. 



cause, in rich soils and sheltered situations, the wood, 
though it thrives fast, is full of sap, and of little value ; 
and is, likewise, very subject to ravage from the attacks 
of insects, and from blight 

Again, he says, " It must be acknowledged that the 
Larch, till it has outgrown the size of a shrub, shows, 
when looked at singly, some elegance in form and ap- 
pearance, especially in spring, decorated, as it then is, by 
the pink tassels of its blossoms ; but, as a tree, it is less 
than any other pleasing ; its branches (for boughs it has 
none), have no variety in the youth of the tree, and little 
dignity even when it attains its full growth ; leaves it can- 
not be said to have, consequently it affords neither shade 
nor shelter. In spring, the Larch becomes green long 
before the native trees, and its green is so pecuhar and 
vivid, that finding nothing to harmonize with it, where- 
ever it comes forth, a disagreeable speck is produced. 
In summer, when all other trees are in their pride, it is of 
a dingy lifeless hue ; in autumn, of a spiritless unvaried 
yellow, and in winter it is still more lamentably distin- 
guished from every other deciduous tree of the forest, for 
they seem only to sleep, but the Larch appears absolutely 
deadf." 

He still goes on for another page to make objections 
against the unhappy Larch tree, which is, indeed, to 
be pitied in having, for its enemy, a pen so powerful. 

* Wordsworth's Description of the Scenery of the Lakes, p. 86. 
t Ibid. p. 93. 



P 



LAUREL. 



PRUNUS. 

AMYGDALEi^E,. ICOSANDRIA MONOSYNIA. 

The word Prunus is supposed to be of Asiatic origin. — French^ 
laurier-cerise ; Italian, lauro-regio. 

The Laurel, commonly so called, Prunus lauro-ce- 
rasus, is too well known to need description : it is in- 
cluded in the same genus with the cherry-tree, and, in 
Johnson''s edition of Gerarde's Herbal, is called the 
Cherry-bay, the translation of its present specific name. 
Johnson says, " it was sent to Clusius from Constan- 
tinople by the name of Trabison Curmasi, or the Date or 
Trebisond ; but it hath no affinity with the date. Clu- 
sius, and most since, call it fitly Lauro-cerasus, or Cera- 
sus folio laurino. It is now got into many of our choice 
English gardens, where it is well respected for the beauty 
of the leaves, and their lasting or continual greenness. 
The fruit is good to be eaten, of a sweet and pleasant j 
taste, with a stone in it like a cherry."" 

This tree is a native of the Levant, Caucasus, the 
mountains of Persia, and the Crimea. Clusius received 
it in the year 1576, from David Ungnad, then ambas- 
sador of Germany at Constantinople, with some other 
rare trees and shrubs, all of which are said to have pe- 
rished by the severity of the weather, and the carelessness 
of those who brought them, with the exception of this 
Laurel and a horse-chestnut. Clusius says, indeed, that 
the Laurel was almost dead ; he put it into a stove 



LAUREL. 



exactly as it arrived, in the same tub and earth ; in the 
April following he took it out, cut off all the withered 
branches, and set it in a shady place ; in the autumn it 
began to shoot from the root ; he then removed the living 
part into another tub, and took great care of it : when it 
was sufficiently advanced, he laid down the branches, 
which took root ; and he distributed his plants among 
his friends and men of eminence. Clusius's plant died 
without flowering ; but one of those which he gave away, 
blossomed in the year 1583. 

Parkinson, in his Paradisus, published in 1629, speaks 
of it by the name of Bay-Cherry ; saying he had a plant 
of it given him by Mr. J ames Cole, a merchant of Lon- 
don, then lately deceased, in whose garden at Highgate 
it was growing. It had flowered several times, anql also 
borne ripe fruit. He describes Mr. Cole's as a fair tree, 
which he defended from the bitterness of the weather by 
throwing a blanket over the top of it every winter. It is 
curious to picture to oneself these careful naturalists ten- 
derly nursing and watching over the fate of a plant, 
which now is common, not only to every gentleman\s 
garden and shrubbery, but is seen coasting every dusty 
garden in the suburbs. Had the plant sent to Clusius 
been taken less care of, and died, the tree might have 
been many years longer a stranger in England, and we 
might still have been wrapping it in blankets. 

It is said that powdered Laurel-leaves will excite 
sneezing ; these leaves are poisonous, and have in several 
instances proved fatal to the human race ; to brute ani- 
mals they are almost instantaneously mortal : yet they 
have been used both in medicinal and culinary pre- 
parations. 

The Portugal Laurel, Prumis Liisitamca^ is a beautiful 

p 2 



212 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



evergreen, with large, glossy, pointed leaves, and blossoms 
very similar to those of the common Laurel. It blossoms 
in June, and the berries ripen in October. This shrub 
was brought to England from Portugal ; but whether a 
native of that, or a plant which had been introduced 
from some other country, is not certain. The Portuguese 
call it Azoureiro ; the French, Azai'ero ; the Itahans, 
Pruno Portoghese, By these names it appeal's, that to 
whatever country it originally owed its birth, it went to 
France and Italy, as it came to us,— from Portugal. 

The Kew Catalogue describes it as a native of Por- 
tugal and Madeha. It was cultivated in England in 
1722. 



LAURUSTINUS. 



VIBURNUM TINUS. 

■CAPRIFOLIE.E. PEXTANDRIA TRIGYNIA. 

Viburnum, from viere, to bind ; some of the shrubs of this 
genus affording twigs fit for bands. French, laurier-thym ; 
Italian, lauro tino; English, laurustinuSj laurustine ; which names 
signify little laurel ; so called by old authors, who considered it as 
a smaller species of the bay- tree. Gerarde and Parkinson call it 
the Wild Bay-tree. 

Theee are several varieties of the Laiirustinus ; the 
Common, the Hairv, the Upright, and the Shining-leaved : 
the latter is by far the most ornamental ; it grows higher 
and stronger ; the bark is smoother, the leaves larger, of 
a thicker consistence, and of a finer green than the othe±' 
varieties. The flowers also are larger, and in larger 
clusters ; but tliis is considered the least hardy. It is a 
native of Portugal and Spain, ^Nlount Atlas, and Algiers. 

The Hairy Laiu-ustinus is a native of Spain, Portugal, 
and Nice : this is the most hardy of all. 

The leaves of the Upright Laurustinus are hairy un- 
derneath, and those of the common sort ai'e hairy at the 
edges : this last variety is an Italian. It was cultivated 
here in 1596. 

" We scarcely recollect a plant/' says Mr. Curtis, 
" whose blossoms are so hardy as those of the Laurus- 
tinus ; they brave the inclemency of our winters, and 
are not destroyed but in very severe seasons. The smoke 
of London is highly detrimental to its growth : it thrives 
best in a dry soil, and sheltered situation.'' 



214 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



The Laurustiiius is one of the tasteful trees that 
gathered around Orpheus to hsten to his lyre : 

" There stood a mountain on whose towering head. 
Wide, void of shade^, a gi'assy meadow spread. 
Here_, while harmonious as his radiant sire, 
Orpheus reclined, and struck his golden lyre. 
Trees, gathering round, his godlike power bespoke; 
The poplar tall, the wide-expanding oak, 
J oin the soft teil, and first the meadow reach ; 
The brittle hazel next, the mountain beech ; 
The wild-ash, hewn in spears when clarions stir 
Assembled chiefs to war ; the knotless fir : 
The lotos red, in marshy lowiands found ; 
The tree of heavenly Jove, with acorns crowned : 
The plant w^hose smiles Apollo sought in vain ; 
The mottled maple, and the genial plane ; 
The tamarisk; the willow, whose green locks 
Trail o'er the stream ; the ever-verdant box ; 
The flowery myrtle ; the green-berried tine ; 
The tendrill'd ivy, and the branching vine ; 
The sable pitch-tree with expanded root ; 
The slender cherry, red with nodding fruit ; 
The lofty elm with, creeping vines o'erspread ; 
The bending palm that graces victory's head; 
And that rough tree whose branching foliage nods,. 
Loved by the mighty mother of the gods. 
Since youthful Attis, to her fondness blind. 
Slept in its core, and hardened in its rind. 

* * * * * * . 

****** 
Such were the trees that ow^n'd the magic sound." 

Dr. Orger's Ovid, book x. 



Few of our poets have noticed this beautiful shrub : it 
is mentioned in Dodsley's Agriculture as finely contrast- 
ing with the laburnum and the dapJuie iiiezcrcon : 



LAURUSTINUS. 



215 



Now lost 

Amidst a glooming wilderness of shrubs 
The golden orange^ arbute evergreen. 
The early blooming almond, feathery pine. 
Fair opulus to spring, to autumn dear. 
And the sweet shades of varying verdure, caught 
From soft acacia's gently waving branch. 
Heedless he wanders : while the grateful scents 
Of sweetbriar, roses, honeysuckles wild. 
Regale the smell ; and to the enchanted eye 
Mezereon's purple, laurastinus' white. 
And pale laburnum's pendent flowers display 
Their different beauties." 

This shrub is so absolute in its love of the country, 
tliat it will not live in London, nor thrive near it. 



* Guelder Rose. 



LIME TREE. 



TILIA. 

TILIACEJE. POLYAXDRIA MONOGYNIA. 

French, tilleul; Italian, tiglio, tiglia; English, lirae, or linden, 
(which is the German name also), and in Lincolnshire, bast, 
because ropes are made from the bark. Gerarde adds line tree. 

The Lime, Tilia Eu7'opcea, is a tall upright tree, with 
smooth spreading branches, thickly clothed with al- 
ternate heart-shaped, smooth, serrate leaves, pointed at 
the ends, of a very cheerful green. The flowers are of a 
yellowish colour, delightfully fragrant, especially at night, 
growing in clusters of four or five together, and blowing 
in July. 

The Lime is a native of most parts of Europe, and of 
Japan. The sm.all-leaved variety grows wild in many 
parts of England, in woods, and on grassy declivities. 
The common, and other varieties, are more commonly 
seen cultivated in hedges, avenues, parks, &c. and before 
houses. It will bear the smoke of London tolerably well. 

The Lime-trees in St. James's Park are said to have 
been planted at the suggestion of Mr. Evelyn ; probably 
with a view to the improvement of the air, which they 
have been thought to effect. 

The Dutch plant Limes in abundance by their canals ; 
and during July and August the whole country is per- 
fumed with their blossoms, overcoming the unpleasant 
effluvia arising from the stagnant water at that season. 
Miller complains that it has been much neglected, be- 
cause it sheds its leaves early in the autumn, and does 
not put them forth till late in the spring. They begin 



LIME TREE. 



217 



to open about the twelfth of April, and are all out by the 
eighteenth. 

Evelyn, too, complains of the " shameful neghgence 
of our countrymen in not being better provided of a tree 
so choice and universally acceptable." For in his time 
they were imported from Holland and Flanders at a great 
expense, and that, too, " whilst our own woods sponta- 
neously produce them, and though of a somewhat smaller 
leaf, yet altogether as good, apt to be civilised, and made 
more florid.*' 

It is indeed a most beautiful tree ; it grows in a hand- 
some form, and to a large size ; the fohage is elegant, and 
of a fine verdure ; its ample leaves and spreading branches 
affbrd an admirable shade, and the fragrance of its blos- 
soms is delightful : 

*' Clear was the song from Philomel's far bower ; 
Grateful the incense from the lime tree flower." 

Keats. 

Moreover, it ^vill resist wind and storm. 

Mr. Martyn remarks, that it was highly esteemed by 
the Romans for its shade, and numerous uses, and quotes 
the following hne from Phny in praise of it : 
Tiliae ad mille usus petendae." 
Lime trees for a thousand uses sought." 

" The flowers," says Dr. Hunter, " begin to open 
about the fifteenth of May, and are in full blow about 
the thirteenth of July, when they appear of a white 
colour, and have a very fragrant smell. These are very 
grateful to bees; for which reason Virgil, in his beautiful 
description of the industrious Corycian, places the Lime 
and the pine in the neighbourhood of his hives :" 

Ergo apibus fetis idem atque examine multo 
Primus abundare, et spumantia cogere pressis 
Mella favis ; illi tilise_, atque uberrima pinus." 

Georgic iv. 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



He, therefore;, was the first to abound with pregnant bees^, and 
plentiful swarmsj and to squeeze the frothing honey from the 
combs ; he had limes and plenty of pines." 

Martyn's Translation. 

Martyn observes, in a note upon this passage, that 
Columella afErms that the Lime is hurtful to bees. 

Eveljn praises the Lime as being " the most proper 
and beautiful for walks, as producing an upright body, 
smooth and even bark, ample leaf, sv/eet blossom, the 
delight of bees, and a goodly shade at the distance of 
eighteen or twenty-five feet." 

There is certainly no contradiction in what these au- 
thors say of the Lime being agreeable to bees, and 
Columella's assertion that it is injurious to them : but it 
is strange that Virgil should either not know, or that he 
should overlook such a circumstance, since he is very 
particular in warning the husbandman against such plants 
as will hurt the bees ; and although the Lime is not in- 
timately connected with those busy insects in the passage 
just quoted, yet a little further on he speaks of it ex- 
pressly as affording them food : 

" pascuntur et arbuta passim^ 

Et glaucas salices^ casiaraque;, crocumque rubentem^ 
Et ping-uem tiliam, et ferrugineos hyacinthos." 

" They feed also at large on arbutes, boary willows^ cassia, and 
glowing saffron, and fat limes and deep-coloured hyacinths." 

The Russian peasants are said to suspend their bee- 
hives in the woods purposely that the bees may have the 
early blossom of the Lime, which is thought to produce 
very fine honey. The Lime grows in Russia more 
abundantly than any other tree, with the exception of 
the birch ; and what the birch is to the Swedish peasant, 
the Lime is to the peasant of Russia. The thick bark is 
made into baskets for carriages and sledges, into boxes 



LIME TREE. 



219 



and trunks ; and helps to roof their cottages. Of the 
inner bark are made mats, many of which they export ; 
the rind of the young shoots they braid into shoes. 
" The wood is sawn into boards, wrought up into canoes, 
and burned into pot-ashes, and from the blossom of the 
Linden tree the bees suck an excellent nourishment 

Evelyn says, that in a rich loamy soil, which ihe Lime 
affects, " its growth will be most incredible for speed and 
spreading.''"' Of the several varieties, the Red-twigged is 
the most desirable, from the very circmristance which 
gives it the name ; the red twigs finely contrasting with 
the green foliage. 

There are several Lime trees upon record remarkable 
for their magnitude : it will suffice to mention a few of 
the most considerable. Evelyn speaks of one in Switzer- 
land forming a bower with its branches, capable of con- 
taining three hundred men sitting at ease. It has a 
fountain, set about with many tables, formed only of the 
boughs, to which they ascend by steps, all kept so accu- 
rately, and so very thick, that the sun never looks into 
it. " But this,"" continues he, " is nothing to that pro- 
digious Lime of Neustadt, in the duchy of Wirtemberg, 
so famous for its monstrosity, that even the city itself 
receives a denomination from it, being called by the 
Germans ' Neustadt ander grossen Linden^' — ' Neustadt 
by the great Lime tree." The circumference of the trunk 
is twenty-seven feet four fingers. 

He mentions a third, the account of which he received 
from Sir Thomas Brown of Norwich, and gives in his 
o^vn words. We will hope he speaks from his own 
knowledge, since whatever he heard, his " active faith'" 
would credit. 



* Tookc's Survey of Russia^ vol. iii. p. 368. 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



" At Depeham^ in Norfolk, grows an extraordinary 
Lime tree, the compass of which, in the least part of the 
body, is eight yards and a half, and about the roots, near 
the earth, it measures sixteen yards. This surmounts the 
famous Lime of Zurich in Switzerland, and uncertain it 
is whether in any Lime-walk abroad it be considerably 
exceeded.'' 

This tree was ninety feet high. 

The wood of the Lime tree is turned into light bowls, 
and dishes, and boxes for the apothecaries ; but its chief 
use is for carving : 

" Their beauteous veins the yew 

And phillyrea lend, to surface o'er 
The cabinet. Smooth linden best obeys 
The carver's chisel ; best his curious work 
Displays in all its nicest touches." 

Does ley's Agriculture. 

" Many of Gibbons's beautiful works in Lime tree are 
dispersed about this country,'** says Martyn, " in the 
churches and palaces : as in the choir of St. Paul's ; the 
Duke of Devonshire's at Chatsworth ; Trinity College 
library, at Cambridge, &c." Evelyn, speaking of these 
works of Gibbons, says, " Having had the honour (for so 
I account it) to be the first who recommended this great 
artist to his Majesty Charles the Second : I mention it 
on this occasion with much satisfaction." 

" With the twigs of the Lime," observes this delightful 
author, " they make baskets and cradles, and of the 
smoother side of the bark, tablets for writing ; for the 
ancient Philyra is but our Tilia, of which Munting 
affirms he saw a book made of the inward bark, written 
about a thousand years since. Such another was brought 
to the Count pf St. Amant, governor of Arras, 1662, for 
which there were given eight thousand ducats by the 



LIME TREE. 



emperor. It contained a work of Cicero, De Ordinanda 
Hepublicaf etde hweniendis Orationum Exordiis; apiece 
inestimable, but never published, and now in the library 
at Vienna, after it had formerly been the greatest rarity 
in that of the late Cardinal Mazarine. Other papyraceous 
trees are mentioned by West Indian travellers, especially 
in Hispaniola, Java, &c. whose inward bark not only ex- 
ceeds our largest paper for breadth and length, and may 
be written on both sides, but is comparable to our best 
vellum. Bellonius says that the Grecians made bottles 
of the TiKa, which they finely resined withinside." 
Again, speaking of the numbers of Limes planted by the 
Dutch, he breaks forth in a rapturous manner, — " Is 
there a more ra\'ishing or dehghtful object than to behold 
some entire streets and whole towns planted with these 
trees, in even hnes before their doors, so as they even 
seem like cities in a wood ? This is extremely fresh, 
of admirable effect against the epilepsy, for which the 
dehcately scented blossoms are held prevalent, and skreen 
the houses from wind, rain, and dust ; than which there 
can be nothing more desirable where streets are much 
frequented*." 

It has been observed that the Lime is called Bast in 
Lincolnshire, because ropes are made of the bark ; mats 
also are made of it, which are used by gardeners, and 
are called Bast in the north of Europe. Great numbers 
of them are made in Russia, and exported to other 
countries. The sap of the Lime, inspissated, affords a 
quantity of sugar. 

The garlands of flowers with which the ancients 
crowned themselves in their convivial entertainments, 
were artfully bound together with shps of the inner 
rind of the Lime tree. 



* Evelyn's Sylva. 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Ebrius incinctis philyra conviva capillis 
Saltat;, et imprudens utitur arte meri." 

Ovid. Fast. 

A cup too much the boon companion takes. 

And reeling in the dance, his linden riband shakes." 

" Displicent nexae philyra coronge." 

Horace, Ode xxxviii. book i. 

Ribands from the Hnden tree 
Give a wreath no charms for me *.'' 

The character of the Lime the most frequently no- 
ticed by poets, is its smoothness : Virgil says, — " Tilige 
laeves — " Smooth Limes."" Cowper alludes to this qua- 
lity in the following passage, in which he describes a 
beautiful character of woody scenery which has not often 
been touched upon : 

" Here the gray smooth trunks 

Of ash, or lime, or beech, distinctly shine, 
Within the twilight of their distant shades ; 
There, lost behind a rising ground, the wood 
Seems sunk, and shortened to its topmost boughs." 

Task, book i. 

The same circumstance is noticed in the Story of 
Rimini, with the addition of a bright sunshine : 

" Places of nestling gi-een for poets made. 
Where, when the sunshine struck a yellow shade. 
The slender trunks to inward-peeping sight. 
Thronged in dark pillars up the gold green light." 

Leigh Hunt. 

* This is Horace speaking. He is telling his servant not to 
make ostentatious preparations for the wine he is going to drink 
under a bower, nor to add any thing to the simple crown of myrtle 
for his head. 



LIME THEE. 



223 



This poet, who was the first, and has hitherto been 
the only mortal, who has been honoured with the sight 
of the Nepheliads in person, informs us that they love 

" a leafy nook and lone^, 

Where the bark on the small treen 

Is with moisture always green ; 

And Hme tree bowers, and grass-edged lanes 

"With little ponds that hold the rains, 

^yhere the nice-eyed wagtails glance. 

Sipping 'twixt their jerking dance/* 

Nymphs, part ii. 

According to Rapin, (whom on this account we must 
quote, notwithstanding the poverty of the English ver- 
sion,) Baucis and Philemon were transformed to Lime 
trees : 

" The mounting limes will all their care requite. 
Who take in shady walks a true delight ; 
WTiile these you plant, Philemon call to mind. 
In love and duty with his Baucis join'd, 
A good old pair whom poverty had tried. 
Nor could their vows and nuptial faith divide ; 
Their humble cot with sweet content was blest, 
And each benighted stranger was their guest : 
When Jove unknown they kindly entertained. 
This boon the hospitable pair obtained. 
Laden with years, and weak through length of time. 
That they should each become a verdant lime." 

Cowley praises the Lime tree very highly, in his poem 
on trees. 

Sannazaro calls it " la incorrutihile Tiglia^^ the in- 
corruptible Lime ; for, says the editor, non sente mat 
corrottione di sorte alcuna.'''' " It never feels corruption 
of any sort*.'' 



* Arcadia di M. 1 Sannazaro, prosa prima. 



LIQUIDAMBER TREE. 



LIQUIDAMBAR. 

AMENTACEiE. MONCECIA POLYANDRIA. 

This tree was so named by the Spaniards in America^ from the 
liquid gum which it distils. It is familiarly called sweet-gum and 
was formerly called liquid storax-tree. — French, copalme^ liquid- 
ambar; Italian, liquidambra. 

The trunk of the Liquidamhar styracijiua is commonly 
two feet in diameter at full growth, straight, and bare of 
branches to the height of fifteen feet ; from thence the 
branches spread and rise in a conic form, to the height 
of forty feet or more from the ground. The leaves ai'e 
shaped somewhat like those of the lesser maple, but are 
of a darker green, and glossy on their upper surface : a 
sweet and glutinous substance distils through their pores 
in warm weather, which renders them clammy to the 
touch. In February, before the leaves are formed, the 
blossoms begin to break forth from the tops of the 
branches, into spikes of pale red, or deep saffron-colom-ed 
globular flowers, which swell gradually, still retaining 
their round form, to the full maturity of the seed-vessels, 
which are thickset with pointed hollow protuberances : 
each cell contains a seed winged at one end, beside many 
small grains, distinct from the seed. 

The wood of this tree is used in wainscoting, &c. 
The grain is fine, and sometimes beautifully variegated ; 
but is apt to shrink if not well seasoned ; and to season 
it well is an operation of eight or ten yeai's. From be- 



LIQUIDAMBER TREE. 



225 



tween the wood and the bark issues a fragrant gum, 
which trickles from wounds made in the trees, and con- 
geals in the heat of the sun into transparent drops ; this 
the Indians use as a preservative to their teeth. With 
the bark they cover their huts. 

This tree is a native of North America, in low clayey 
ground : it was cultivated in the garden of Compton, 
Bishop of London, by his gardener, George London, in 
1688, and bears the severest cold of our climate without 
injury. 



MAGNOLIA. 



MAGyOLIACE.l,, POLYANDRIA POLYGYNIA, 

Named Magnolia by Plumier^ in honour of Pierre Magnol^ pro- 
fessor of medicine, prefect of the Botanic Garden at Montpelier, 
and author of several botanical works. Miller calls the laurel- 
leaved magnolia^ sweet-flowering bay : the gardeners give it the 
appellation of tulip-tree ; a name also common to the Liriudendi^on 
iuJipifera. — French, magnolier j Italian, magnolia. 

The Magnolias are trees; chiefly American, and none 
European. Their leaves are large ; their flowers axillary, 
very large and sweet-scented. 

The Great Laurel-leaved i\IagnoHa, Magnolia grandi- 
flora^ in the southern provinces of North America, rises 
with a straight trunk of two feet or more in diameter, to 
the height of seventy or eighty feet, or yet higher, di- 
viding into m.any spreading branches that form a lai'ge 
regular head. The leaves are nine or ten inches long, 
and three broad in the middle, of a thick consistence, 
resembling those of the common laurel, but much 
larger ; they are of a lucid green on the upper surface, 
and often of a russet colour beneath : they continue 
gi'een all the year, falling off* only as new ones are pro- 
duced. The flowers are large, composed of eight or ten 
petals, narrow at their base, but broad, rounded, and a 
little waved at their extremities : they spread open very 
wide, are of a pure white, and have an agreeable odour. 

In its native country, this tree begins to blossom in 
May, and continues in flower for a long time, so that the 
woods are perfumed with it the greater part of the 



MAGNOLIA. 



227 



summer ; but here it seldom begins to flower till the 
middle or end of June, and does not remain long in 
bloom. EngKsh summers are not warm enough to bring 
the fruit to perfection. 

This fine tree is a native of Carolina and Florida, and, 
in common with many of the trees and plants of that 
country, is impatient of cold here, and difficult to keep 
in perfection either abroad or in the green-house. Its 
beauty would render it one of the greatest ornaments of 
our plantations. It is most liable to suffer from the 
early frosts of autumn, the extremities of the young shoots 
being then tender : this is the most tender of all the 
species, from the circumstance of its retaining its leaves. 
Miller says there were a great many young plants in 
England, which were destroyed by the severe winter of 
1739-40 : and that he had one himself, which he sup- 
posed to be dead, a pretty large one ; after midsummer, 
he cut it down to the root, and was surprised to see it 
shoot up again the next year. 

The Swamp Magnolia, Magnolia glauca, grows with 
a slender stem, about fifteen or sixteen feet high ; the 
leaves resemble those of the bay, but that they are 
hoary on the under side. The flowers are composed of 
six concave petals, white and sweet-scented ; they blow 
in May and June. In North America, there is a suc- 
cession of flowers for two months or more ; but in this 
country, there are seldom more than twelve or fourteen 
on a tree, and those are of short duration. The fruit is 
of a conical shape, something more than an inch long, 
and three quarters of an inch in diameter ; it is first 
green, then red, and when ripe, of a brown colour. 

This tree sheds its leaves early in November : the young 
trees will sometimes retain the leaves till new ones form ; 

q2 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



and this circumstance has induced some persons to 
divide them into two species, one deciduous, and one 
evergreen. 

In America, it is known by the names of White 
Laurel, Swamp Sassafras, and Beaver tree : it has the 
last name from that animal being caught by means of 
the root, which it eats as a great dainty. 

Kalm says that he has seldom found this tree north of 
Pennsylvania, where it begins to flower at the end of 
May. " These trees may then be discovered," says he, 
" by the scent of the blossoms, at the distance of three 
quarters of a mile, if the wind be favourable. It is be- 
yond description pleasant to travel in the woods at that 
season, especially in the evening. They retain their flowers 
three weeks, and even longer : the berries also look very 
handsome when they are ripe, being of a rich red colour, 
and hanging in bunches on slender threads. They cure 
coughs and other pectoral diseases by putting these ber- 
ries into brandy, and giving a draught of the liquor every 
morning. It is even said to have salutary effects in con- 
sumptions. For a cold, they commonly boil the branches 
in water ; the wood is made use of for joiners"* planes 

Dillenius says, the flowers of this tree never open in a 
morning ; and that their scent resembles that of the lily 
of the valley with a mixture of aromatic. 

The Blue Magnolia, Magnolia acuminata^ will grow 
thirty feet high, \\ith a trunk eighteen inches or more in 
diameter : the leaves are nearly eight inches long, and Ave 
broad ; the flowers are composed of twelve blue petals ; 
they blow early in the spring, and are succeeded by a 
fruit about three inches long, somewhat resembling a 



* See Martyn's edition of Miller's Gardener's Dictionary. 



MAGNOLIA. 



small cucumber ; Vvhence the inhabitants of North Ame- 
rica call it the cucumber tree. The wood is fine-grained, 
and orange-coloured. This tree is not very common in 
the inhabited parts of America. It was cultivated here 
by Mr. P. CoUinson in 1736. 

The Umbrella Magnolia, or Umbrella tree, Magnolia 
tripetala^ grows from sixteen to twenty feet high, the 
leaves are remarkably large ; from twelve to sixteen 
inches in length, and five or six in breadth, narrowing to 
a point at each end ; they are placed in a circular man- 
ner at the ends of the branches, somewhat like an um- 
brella ; whence its name. The flowers are composed of 
ten, eleven, or twelve large oblong white petals ; the 
outer ones hanging down : the wood is soft and spongy. 
The leaves drop off early in winter. This tree is fre- 
quent in Carolina, and is also found in Virginia, and in 
some parts of Pennsylvania. It was cultivated here in 
1752. 

Thunberg says that almost every house in Japan has 
a little piece of ground behind it, adorned with shrubs 
and flowers ; and that he constantly saw the Magnolia 
among them. 

The Magnolia is not sufliciently well known in this 
country to be celebrated as its beauty deserves. Words- 
worth says, speaking of a traveller — 

" He spoke of plants divine and strange 
That every hour their blossoms change^, 

Ten thousand lovely hues ! 
With budding, fading, faded flowers ; 
They stand the wonder of the bowers 
From morn to evening dews. 

He told of the magnolia, spread 
High as a cloud, liigh overhead ! 
The cypress and her spire ; 



230 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Of flowers, that with one scarlet gleam 
Cover a hundred leagues, and seem 
To set the hills on fire." 

Vol.i. p. 151. 

Tighe, in his poem entitled the Rose, exalting 
beauty of that floral sovereign, says 

*' Less prized, Gardenia drops her lucid bells. 
And rich magnolias close their purple robes." 



MAPLE TREE, 



ACER. 

ACERINE^. POLYGAMIA MONCECIA, 

The etymology of the botanical name is uncertain. French, 
arable ; lialian, acero^ stucchio : the Italian maple, loppo. 

This genus consists of trees, most of which yield a 
saccharine juice from the trunk, branches, and leaves. 
The leaves are either palmate, or are divided into three 
or five lobes: the flowers grow in clusters, ^ind are of a 
yellowish green colour, with exception of one species, of 
which the blossom is scarlet. 

The Tartarian Maple, Acer Tataricum, differs from 
most of the genus in the form of its leaves, which are 
something similar to those of the hornbeam, having 
scarcely any apparent lobes. It is a native of the south 
of Russia ; it grows about twenty feet high. The wood 
is white, veined with brown. This Maple was cultivated 
by Mr. P. Miller in 1759. 

The Scarlet-flowering Maple, Jlcer ruhrum, is culti- 
vated in this country for the sake of the flowers, which 
blow early in the spring. In Pennsylvania, where it grows 
in the swamps and marshes, the natives use it for almost 
every kind of wood-w ork : with the bark they dye a 
dark blue, and make a good ink. The Canadians tap 
the tree for the juice, of which they make sugar and 
treacle. This tree was cultivated by J. Tradescant, 
jun. in 1656. There are two varieties in the nurseries ; 



232 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



the Virginian Scarlet-flowering, and Sir Charles Wager 
Scarlet-flowering Maple. The latter produces its blossoms 
in larger clusters than the common kind, and is therefore 
more esteemed. There is a variety of this tree, called 
the Curled Maple : the wood being marbled, utensils 
made of this are considered more valuable than those of 
any other wood. 

The American Sugar Maple, Ace?' saccharinum, will 
grow to the height of forty feet : the leaves are deeply 
cut, and glaucous on the under side ; the flowers have no 
petals, but are white, and very pretty; coming out before 
the leaves. 

From this Maple the inhabitants of North America 
make large quantities of sugar, by tapping the trees early 
in spring, and boiling the juice. It is supposed that they 
obtain sugar from other species of Maple also, but this 
yields the most juice. In its native country, large tracts 
of land are covered with it ; and it not only yields sugar 
plentifully, but of a quality equal to the best prepared 
from the cane. The drav/ing ofl" and boihng the juice 
may be done by women and girls ; and when the tree is 
skilfully tapped, it will last many years. It has been 
said that the natives not only have enough sugar for 
their own consumption, but export it also. The tree is 
not injured by tapping; but, on the contrary, yields the 
more juice in proportion to the number of times it has 
been tapped ; and a tree has been known to flourish after 
forty-two annual operations. 

In a good season, a tree of an ordinary size yields 
from twenty to thirty gallons of syrup, from which are 
made five or six pounds of sugar. The trees that grow 
in exposed situations are said to yield more sap than 
others : a farmer of Pennsylvania, having planted a num- 
ber of these trees in his meadow, obtained, twenty years 



MAPLE TREE. 



233 



afterwards, a pound of sugar from every three gallons 
of sap. 

The season for tapping the trees is in February, 
March, and April ; from a pint to five gallons of syrup 
may be obtained from one tree in a day : but on the 
14th of April 1789, twenty-three gallons were obtained 
from a single tree. 

An auger is introduced three quarters of an inch deep 
in an ascending direction, and afterwards gradually deep- 
ened to the extent of two inches. A pipe, which is 
generally made of the sumach, or elder-wood, is then put 
into the wound, about half an inch deep, projecting from 
three to tAvelve inches. The tree is first tapped on the 
south side, afterwards on the north : the sap flows, from 
four to six weeks, according to the temperature of the 
weather ; three or four gallon troughs are placed under 
the spout to receive it : this is carried every day to a 
lai'ge receiver, from which, after being strained, it is 
conveyed to the boiler. 

The sugar is improved by straining the sap through 
a cloth ; when it is about half boiled, a small lump of 
butter or hog's lard is put in, to prevent its boiling over, 
and hme, eggs, or new milk, are mixed with the sap to 
clarify it. The latter is reckoned the best, but clear 
sugar may be made without either of them. When 
sufficiently boiled, it is clayed and refined much in the 
same manner with the cane-sugar. The sap should 
never be kept longer than twenty-four hours before it is 
boiled; and that boiled in a copper vessel will be of a 
fairer colour than when boiled in an iron one. 

For many years a great many private families in Penn- 
sylvania have supplied themselves with this sugar in 
plenty. Many have made from 200 to 400 lbs. in a year. 



234 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



One man sold 600 lbs. made in one ,season, entirely with 
his own hands; another, without any assistance, and 
besides attending to the other business of his farm, made 
640 lbs. in four weeks. 

The Indians in Canada have made Maple sugar time 
out of mind, and obtained a pound from every gallon of 
sap. The French began to refine it in that country 
towards the close of the seventeenth century. 

During the summer months, and early part of autumn, 
the tree yields a thinner sap, not fit for sugar; this 
affords a pleasant beverage in harvest-time, and is some- 
times used instead of rum, by farmers in Connecticut, 
whose ancestors have left them here and there a Maple 
tree in the midst of a field, probably intended as a shade 
for their cattle. Mr. Bruce describes a beverage of the 
same kind, prepared by the inhabitants of Egypt, by 
infusing the sugar-cane in water ; which he declares to 
be the most refreshing drink in the world. 

Baron la Houtan gives the following account of the 
sap of the Sugar Maple, when used as a drink : " The 
tree yields a sap, which has a much pleasanter taste 
than the best lemonade or cherry-water, and makes 
the wholesomest drink in the world. This liquor is 
drawn by cutting the tree two inches deep in the wood ; 
the cut being made sloping to the length of ten or twelve 
inches; at the lower end of this gash a knife is thrust 
into the tree slopingly, so that the water runs along the 
cut, as through a gutter, and falls upon the knife, under 
which a vessel is placed to receive it. Some trees will 
yield five or six bottles of this water in a day ; and some 
inhabitants of Canada might, in one day, draw twenty 
hogsheads, if they would thus cut all the Maple-trees 



MAPLE TKEE. 



235 



in their plantations. The gash does no harm to the 
tree*." 

The Pennsylvanian Maple, Acer Pennsylvanicum, sel- 
dom exceeds fifteen feet in height : the stem is slender, 
covered with a whitish bark, and sending forth several 
branches ; the leaves are nine inches long, and nearly as 
Avide. This species was introduced here in 1755, by 
Messrs. Kennedy and Lee. 

The Ash-leaved Maple, Acer negundo^ is a tree of 
quick growth ; and in Virginia and Carolina, where its 
growth is spontaneous, is one of the largest of the Maples : 
the leaves are of a pale green, not lobed. ^ This tree is 
apt to split if much exposed to keen winds : the wood is 
soft and brittle, but is used for the same purposes as that 
of the Norway Maple. It Avas cultivated in the garden 
of the Bishop of London, at Fulham, in 1688. 

The Italian Maple, Acer opalus, is a common tree in 
Italy, and one of the loftiest in that country ; it 
is esteemed for the shade afforded by its large leaves, 
and frequently planted near habitations, and by the sides 
of the roads. It was cultivated by Mr. Miller in 1752. 

The Montpelier Maple, Acer Monspessulamwi, grows 
about twenty feet high ; the leaves are of a shining green, 
and preserve their freshness very late in the autumn. 
Mr. Miller had this in his garden in the year 1739. 

The Cretan Maple, Acer Creticum, is very much like 
the last-mentioned, and is about the same sized tree: 
when young the leaves are ovate, but afterwards they 
take the shape of the ivy-leaf before that becomes ovate. 
When the trees are in a sheltered situation, the leaves 
continue green the greater part of the year. It is from 



* See Martyn's edition of Miller's Gardening Dictionary. 



236 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



the Levant. Mr. Miller cultivated it in 175S. The 
tree which he describes as an evergreen Maple is supposed 
to be a variety of this. 

The Norway Maple, Acer platanoides, grows to a large 
size ; the leaves are of a shining green, about the size of 
those of the Sycamore, and it sometimes makes a hand- 
somer appearance than that tree, owing to a sharp juice 
with which it abounds ; which, being disliked by insects, 
prevents their eating or destroying the leaves as they do 
the sycamore leaves. The flowers, which are of a fine 
yellow colour, add to the beauty of the tree in spring ; 
in summer it forms an admirable shade, and in the 
autumn the leaves, then of a golden yellow, make a 
beautiful and conspicuous figure among the rich variety 
of hues peculiar to that season. 

Linnaeus recommends this tree as yielding a sap from 
which sugar may be made, and as affording a white, 
smooth wood for gun stocks, &c. It is a quick grower. 
There is a variety with variegated leaves ; but the principal 
variety is that which is called the Cut-leaved Maple, of 
which the leaves are deeply jagged. 

The Norway Maple was cultivated in England in 
1724. In France this tree is called Platane, or Faux 
Sycamore ; as they call the sycamore Sycomore^ or Faux 
Platane. 

The Common Maple, Acer campestre, though it does 
not become a large tree, " yet,"" says Mr. Martyn, " it 
should not have been degraded by Linnaeus to a shrub.'' 
Evelyn says, that by shredding up the boughs to a head, 
he has caused it to shoot to a wonderful height in a little 
time. This Maple is chiefly seen in hedge-rows and 
coppices. 

The wood of this tree was highly valued by the an- 



MAPLE TREE. 



cients, and some of their writers have much praised it : 
Pliny in particular commends Maples in general, and 
extols some for the remarkable fineness of the grain. 

" In former times," says Evelyn, " so mad were peo- 
ple in searching for the bruscum* of this tree, which 
often formed the exact representation of birds, beasts, 
&c. that they spared no expense in procuring it. The 
timber is used for musical instruments, inlaying, &c. 
and is reckoned superior to most woods for turnery ware. 
The flower-buds begin to open about the 6th of April, 
and are in full blow by the 11th of May ; the leaves are 
out about the 18th of April." 

Pliny says, " The Maple, for the elegancy and firmness 
of the wood, is next to the very citron itself 'f. There 
are several kinds of it, especially the White, which is 
wonderfully beautiful ; this is called the French Maple, 
and grows in that part of Italy that is on the other side 
of the Po beyond the Alps ; the other has a curled 
grain, so curiously spotted, that from a near resemblance, 
it was usually called the Peacock's-tail." 

Again, Pliny says, " The bruscum is wonderfully 
fair, but the molluscum is counted most precious ; 
both of them knobs and swellings out of the tree : the 
bruscum is more intricately crisped, the molluscum not 
so much ; and had we trees large enough to saw into 
planks for tables, it would be preferred before citron ; 
but now they use it only for small table-books, and 
its thin boards to wainscot bed-testers with. The brus- 

* The knotted parts. 

t It has been observed in the article Cypress, that the citron- 
wood of the ancients was from a kind of wild cypress. 



238 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



cum is of a blackish kind with which they make 
tables 

Of these curious woods were made the famous tables 
called Tigrin and Pantherine ; " not so named,"' says 
Evelyn, " from being supported with figures carved like 
those beasts, as some conceive, and yvsls in use in our 
grandfathers* days, but from the natural spots and ma- 
culations. Such a table was that of Cicero's, which cost 
him 10,000 sesterces ; such another had Asinius Gallus. 
That of King Juba was sold for 15,000 ; and yet that 
of the IMauritanian Ptolomee was far richer, containing 
four feet and a half diameter, three inches thick, which 
is reported to have been sold for its weight in gold. Of 
that value they were, and so madly luxurious was the 
age, that when the men at any time reproached their 
wives for their wanton expensiveness in pearls, and other 
rich trifles, they were wont to retort, and turn the tables 
upon their husbands 

Dr. Hunter observes that from this circumstance, re- 
lated by Pliny, the common expression of turning the 
tables, appears to have been derived. 

This ancient extravagance in tables has been ridiculed 
bv many of the poets. 

The Great Maple, Ace?' pseiidojplatanus, grows in 
mountainous situations in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, 
&c. With us, it is commonly known by the name of 
sycomore or sycamore-tree ; it is also called the mock 
plane-tree, and the wild fig-tree. In Scotland, they call 
it simply plane-tree. We might call it niock^ sycamore, 
since the true sycamore is an Egyptian tree, the leaves 



* See Evelyn's Syh^a. 



f Ibkl. 



MAPLE TREE. 



239 



of which resemble those of the mulberry-tree^ and the 
fruit that of the wild fi^ ; whence it was named from 
both, s?/cos signifying a fig and moms a mulbeiTy- 
tree. 

Thevenot mentions a curious tradition concerning one 
of these trees, which has also been related by other tra- 
vellers : "At Matharee," says he, " is a large garden 
surrounded by walls, in which are various trees, and, 
among others, a large sycamore, or Pharaoh's fig, very 
old, which bears fruit every year. They say that the 
Virgin passing that way with her son Jesus, and being 
pursued by a number of people, this fig-tree opened to 
receive her ; she entered, and it closed her in, until the 
people had passed by, when it re-opened ; and that it 
remained open ever after to the year 1656, when the 
part of the trunk that had separated itself was broken 
away 

The Great Maple is called in France, as with us, 
Sycomore or Faux Platane^ Mock-plane : the Itahans 
call it Acero Fico, Fig-maple. 

This tree grows very high with a spreading top : it is 
in leaf by the middle of April, and the leaves on their 
first appearance are of a pleasant green, but they distil a 
clammy juice that is agreeable to insects, and they soon 
perforate and disfigure them. The flowers are full blown 
by the end of April, but they are of too green a colour 
to make much show. 

The sycamore is good to plant near the sea, because it 
is not injured by the spray. An enormous sycamore is 
said to have grown at Knowle, in Kent, which is repre- 
sented in Badeslade's view of that seat, and is preserved 

* Thevenot's Voyage de Levant, part i. p. 265. 



240 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



in Dr. Harris's history of the county. It was twelve or 
fourteen feet in girth. 

The original plantations of Vauxhall, and Mary-le- 
bone Gardens, were chiefly of the sycamore. It is not 
considered as remarkable for longevity ; Martyn men- 
tions some in Cambridge, in a flourishing state at the 
age of 185 years. 

In spring and autumn, this tree, if wounded, will pour 
forth an abundance of saccharine juice from the stem, 
from which may be made a good wine, and a tolerable 
sugar. There are two varieties of it, one with broader 
leaves, and one of which the leaves are variegated. 

Before earthen-ware came into use at the table, the 
wood of this tree, which is soft and white, was in great 
request for trenchers ; it is still used by the turners for 
bowls, dishes, &c. by the saddlers for saddle-trees, and is 
recommended by Evelyn as excellent for cart and plough 
timber. 

The shade of the sycamore is admirable, even the sight 
of it is cool and refreshing. The Maple bowls so often 
mentioned by our poets, (and still used on some occasions, 
even in London; as in the celebration of Lord Mayor's 
Day, &c.) seem to be the off*spring of the Sycamore, or 
Great Maple. The Maple- v/ood of the Romans was our 
British Maple ; and from a passage in Virgil, Evelyn 
assumes a right to insist upon the respectability of its 
dimensions : 

Hsec ubi dicta, dapes jubet et sublata reponi 
Pocula, gramineoque viros locat ipse sedili ; 
Praecipuumque toro et villosi pelle leonis 
Adcipit iEnearij solioque invitat acerno." 

Eneid viii. 



IMAPLE THEE. 



241 



" Thus having said^ the bowls (removed for fear) 
The youths replaced, and soon restored the cheer. 
On sods of turf he set the soldiers round ; 
A maple throne, raised higher from the ground, 
Received the Trojan chief ; and o'er the bed 
A lion's shaggy hide for ornament they spread." 

Dryden's Translation. 

" Surely,*" says Evelyn, " there were some of them 
of large bulk and noble shade, that Virgil should choose 
it for the Court of his Evander (one of his worthiest 
princes in his best of poems) sitting on his Maple throne.*" 

0\id describes the Maple as " acerque colorihis 
Impar'' — " the mottled maple," that being the character 
for which it was so much valued by the Romans : 

" The maple famed for wood of varied grain." 

Rapin. 

This author compares it to the lime-tree : 

" The maple not unlike the lime-tree grows. 
Like her, her spreading arms abroad she throws. 
Well clothed with leaves ; but that the maple s bole 
Is clad by nature with a ruder stole." 

A maple-bowl generally makes a part of the scanty 
furniture of a hermit's cell : 

His dwelling, a recess in some rude rock. 
Books, beads, and maple-dish, his meagre stock." 

COWPER. 



Many a visitant 



Had sat within his hospitable cave. 
From his maple-bowl the unpolluted spring 
Drunk fearless, and with him partook the bread 
That his pale lips most reverently had bless'd 
With words becoming such a holy man !" 

Wir.soK, 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



<< jt seem'd a hermit's cell. 

Yet void of hour-glass, skull, and maple-dish." 

Mason. 

Dry den introduces it in a larger form into a house- 
wife's cottage : 

" Her parlour window stuck with herbs around 
Of savory smell, and rushes strew'd the ground . 
A maple-dresser in her hall she had. 
On which full many a slender meal she made." 

The old lady was probably little aware, that she was 
in possession of property so valuable ; and that the tree 
which furnished her homely dresser had been sought far 
and wide, and bought and sold at enormous prices by 
men of rank and power. 

Thunberg speaks of the Maples of Japan as extremely 
beautiful. " For beauty,*" says he, " nothing can exceed 
the Maples indigenous of this country." And Dr. Clarke, 
travelling in a climate totally opposite to that of Japan — 
on the borders of Lapland, and even on a mountain in 
that cold climate, says, " In our way up, we were asto- 
nished by the beauty and magnitude of the trees which 
we passed. Here we observed what is vulgarly called 
sycamore in our country, Acer Platanoides^ spreading its 
luxuriant foliage among the proudest natives of the 
place*.'" 

Browne mentions the sycamore as a rural tablet : 

" Ye shady siccamours ! when any swaine^ 
To carve his name upon your rind 
Doth come, where his doth stand, 



* Clarke's Travels, vol. iii. p. 219. 



MAPLE TREE. 



Shed drops, if he be so unkind 
To raze it with his hand." 

W. Browne *. 

Sannazaro celebrates its shade : 

Non trovo tra gli affanni altro ricovero, 
Che di sedermi solo a pife d'un acero, 
D'un faggio, d'un abete, over d'uno sovero, 
Che pensando a colei, che '1 '^or m'ha lacero !" 

Egloga prima, dell' Arcadia. 

" 1 find no other solace in my griefs, than to sit alone at the foot 
of a maple, a beecli, a fir, or a cork-tree, thinking of her who rends 
my heart." 

Massinger says, 

" Here a sure shade 

Of barren sycamores, which the all-seeing sun 
Could not pierce through." 

Duke of Florence, act iv. s. ii. 

Sir Philip Sidney gives it a place in his Arcadia : 

Neare whereunto overtaking her, and sitting downe together 
amonge the sweet flowers, whereof that place was very plentifull, 
under the pleasant shade of a broad-leaved sycamor, they re- 
counted one to another their strange pilgrimage of passions, omitting 
nothing which open-hearted friendship is wont to lay forth, where 
there is cause to communicate both joyes and sorrowes." 

The largeness of its leaf is one of the chief beauties of 
this fine tree ; and Fairfax chooses this epithet for it, in 
the list of trees in the third book of his Tasso : 

The shooter yew> the broad-leaved sycamore. 
The barren platane, and the wallnut sound." 



* On the death of his friend Mr. T. Manwood, vol. iii. p. 66. 



244 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Wordsworth also uses a very characteristic epithet i 

" The staff I yet remember that upbore 
The bending body of my active sire ; 
His seat beneath the honied sycamore 
Where the bees humm'd ; and chair by winter-fire." 

Female Vagrant, 

He describes it as serving the office of the box : 

" On pipes of sycamore they play 
The fragments of a Christmas hymn." 

Idle Shepherd Boys. 

Cowper describes the changes of its leaf in autumn : 

'* The maple^ and the beech of oily nuts 
Prolific, and the lime at dewy eve 
Diffusing odours ; nor unnoted pass 
The sycamore, capricious in attire, 
Now green, now tawny, and, ere autumn yet 
Have changed the woods, in scarlet honours bright." 

Task, book i» 

Clare says of trees in autumn : 

" A russet red the hazels gain, 

As suited to their drear decline ; 
While maples brightest dress retain, 
And in the gayest yellows sliine." 



MEDLAR TEEE. 



MESPILUS. 

POMACE.E. ICOSANDRIA PENTAGYNIA. 

French, neflier ; Italian, nespolo. 

The Dutch Medlar, Mespilus Germanlca^ is a middle- 
sized branching tree; the leaves are of an oval shape, 
but turning off to a point at the extremity (what the bo- 
tanists term oval lanceolate), large, and rather woolly ; 
the blossoms are white, and large ; and the fruit is a 
berry of the size of a smallish apple. This tree is a 
native of Asia, and the south of Europe ; it blossoms in 
June and July. Both the trunk and the branches are 
commonly very crooked ; the branches begin not far 
from the ground. 

The fruit of the Medlar is not agreeable to the taste 
until it is in a state of decay : 

" The medlar, fruit delicious in decay." 

J. Philips. 

This fruit bears on the top the form of a crown, which 
gives occasion to Cowley to say, — 

the medlar tree was found 

Proud Ox its putrid fruit, because 'twas crowned." 

Philips, speaking of grafted fruits, says, — 

" men have gathered from the hawthorn's branch 

Large medlars, imitating regal crowns." 



246 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Captain Stedman, in his expedition to Surinam, speaks 
of some medlars which were of a crimson colour, and in 
taste resembled strawberries*. 

Chaucer describes a goldfinch eating the blossoms of 
the medlar : 

" And as I stood and cast aside mine eye, 
I was ware of the fairest medler tree 
That ever yet in all my life I sie. 
As full of blossomes as it might be. 
Therein a goldfinch leaping pretile 
From bough to bough ; and, as him list;, he eet 
Here and there of buds and floures sw^eet." 

The Flower and the Leaf. 

Mr. Miller describes the Wild Medlar as a different 
species, a native of Sicily, where, he says, it becomes a 
large tree, and grows with a straight stem, and that the 
leaves, flowers, and fruit are smaller than those of the 
Dutch Medlar. 

The Bastard Quince, Mespilus Cha?nce-mespihis, which 
some botanists consider as a pyrus, grovv^s five feet high ; 
the leaves have a yellowish tinge ; the fruit is small, and 
red. It is a native of the Pyrenees, the mountains of 
Austria, the higher parts of Jura, the neighbourhood of 
Geneva, &c. It was cultivated by Mr. J. Sutherland in 
1683, and blossoms in May. 

The Japan Mespilus, or Loquat, M. Jajjonica, which 
some of the most modern botanists have removed out of 
the genus and placed by itself, under the name of Chct^- 
7ioineles Japonica^ is a large and lofty tree ; the taste of 
the fruit is something like that of an apple. It blossoms 
in May and June, 



* Vol. ii. p. r/8. 



MEBLAll TUEE. 



The Dwarf Mespikis, i¥. Cot07ieaster, which is in hke 
manner denied a place among the mespili by some bo- 
tanists, is a low spreading shrub, not more than two feet 
high : the leaves are alternate, the upper surface, bright 
green and smooth ; the lower, white, woolly, and finely 
netted. The flowers are white, tinged with purple ; the 
fruit is first green, it then becomes orange-coloured, 
afterwards red, and finally black. This is a native of 
many parts of Europe, and of Siberia: it blossoms in 
April and May. Mr. J. Tradescant, junior, cultivated 
this species in the year 1656. 

The Quince-leaved Mespilus, M. Tomentosa, which 
some botanists associate with the preceding to form a 
genus, Cotoneaster^ grows about eight feet high. Its 
purple blossoms open in April or May ; the fruit is 
round and large, and red when ripe. Mr. Miller had 
this in his garden in 1759- 



MOUNTAIN-ASH TREE. 



PYRUS AUCUPARIA. 

POMACEiE. ICOSANDRIA TRIGYNIA. 

This tree is a species of service, called the mountain servije : it 
is also called quicken tree^ witchen tree, and roan, or rowan tree. 
It is here placed apart from the common service, only because it is 
now so generally known by the name of mountain ash, that many 
persons would not know it under that head. In Scotland it is as 
commonly called the roan tree. French, sorbier des oiseleurs, 
bird-catcher's service ; Italian, sorbo salvatico. 

The Mountain Ash is an elegant tree in all seasons of 
the year. The leaves are pinnate, (the reader will un- 
derstand that a pinnate leaf, composed of several pairs of 
leaflets placed opposite at regular distances, in botanical 
language, is, in common parlance, a spray on which are 
placed so many leaves in pairs,) notched at the edges, 
without footstalks, having a channeled mid-rib, often 
tinged with purple. 

It is a native of the colder parts of Europe, as Mount 
Lebanon, Siberia, and in boggy and mountainous si- 
tuations in the nortii of England, Wales, Scotland, and 
Ireland. In the south of England it is seldom found of 
any considerable size, but in the northern counties, and 
in Wales, there are large trees, although the growth is 
slow. The blossoms are white, and sweet scented ; 
blowing in May, in little clusters or corymbs, and are 
succeeded by berries which, when ripe, are of a brilliant 
red colour. The blackbirds and thrushes are so fond 



M0U2\'TA1N ASH TREK. 



of them, that they will not always give them time to 
ripen. 

In Germany, the fowlers bait springes or nooses of 
hair with these berries, which they hang in the woods to 
entice the redwings and fieldfares : whence the French 
name, and the Latin specific name, which has a similar 
meaning. 

It is said that the Mountain Ash berries, dried and 
powdered, will make a wholesome bread ; and when we 
consider that the Swedish peasants are often reduced to 
subsist on bread made of the bark of the elm, fir, or 
birch tree, we may easily suppose tJiat made of these 
berries would be a comparative luxury. An ardent 
spirit also is distilled from them, small in quantity, but 
of fine flavour. The Scottish Highlanders and the 
Kamtschadales make that use of them. Infused in water, 
they make an acid liquor, somewhat similar to perry, 
which is drunk by the Welsh poor, who call it Diod- 
Graviole, or Ciavol-drink. In the island of Jura, their 
juice is used as an acid for punch. 

The wood is used in mill-work, — for tables, chairs, 
Sec. : the roots are formed into knife and spoon handles. 
The fletchers commend it for bows, as second only to 
yew, and it is an excellent fuel. 

Few persons, even of the inhabitants of London, are 
entirely unacquainted with the Mountain Ash, its elegant 
fohage, and glowing fruit ; or with the light and cheerful 
contrast it makes with the fir, or larch trees : but only 
those who have travelled northwards, we are told, have 
seen it in all its beauty. Mr. Gilpin says, that in the 
Scottish Highlands it becomes a considerable tree, and 
that a few of them interspersed with the dark pines and 
the waving birch have a very fine effect. 

In old time^ the Mountain Ash was an object of great 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



veneration ; and it has been observed tliat a stump of it 
is frequently found in an old burying ground, or near 
the circle of a Druid temple, whose rites it formerly in- 
vested with its sacred shade. 

Mr. Lightfoot remarks, that in these Druidical circles 
so often seen in North Britain, this tree is more fre- 
quently observed than any ; and that some superstitious 
persons still believe that a part of it carried about them 
will preserve them from the effects of enchantment or 
witchcraft. The dairy-maid never neglects to drive her 
cattle to the shealings or summer pastures with a rod of 
the roan tree, and home again with the same. In 
Strathspey they make a hoop of its wood on the first of 
i\iay, through which they make the sheep and lambs 
pass morning and evening. 

Evelyn says this tree is reputed so sacred in Wales, 
that there is not a churchyard that does not contain one ; 
and that on a certain day every person wears a cross 
made of the wood. Some authors give it the name of 
Fraxinus Camb7'0-Brita7inica, or Welsh Ash. " It is 
reputed,"" says Evelyn, " to be a preservative against 
fascination and evil spirits, whence perhaps we call it 
Witchen : the boughs being stuck about the house, or 
used for walking staffs."" 

Dr. Hunter, in his notes upon this author, says : — 

In former times this tree was supposed to be possessed 
of the property of driving away witches and evil spirits, 
and this property is recorded in one of the stanzas of a 
very ancient song, called the Laidley Worm of Spindleston 
Heughs : 

Their spells were vain ; the hags return'd 
To the queen, in sorrowful mood, 
Crying that witches have no power 
Where there is roan-tree wood." 



MOUNTAIN ASH TIIEE. 



251 



" The last line of this stanza,'' continues Dr. Hunter, 
" leads to the true reading of a line in Shakspeare's 
tragedy of ^lacbeth. The sailor's vnfe, on the "vvitch's 
requesting some chestnuts, hastily answers, * A rown 
tree, witch !' but all the editions have it ' Aroint thee, 
witch !' which is nonsense, and e'vddently a corruption.'"* 
Dr. Hunter's suggestion appears so rational as almost to 
caiTv conviction v.ith it, did we not requii'e further elu- 
cidations of tliis strange term, where this sense can 
scarcely be made to apply. What means Edgar in 
King Lear ? 

" Saint Withold footed thrice the wold ; 
He met the night-mare^, and her nine-fold ; 
Bid her alight. 
And her troth plight. 
And aroint thee, witch ! aroint thee !" 

This is generally supposed to signify avaunt ; but it 
is found in no other author than Shakspeare. Hone, in 
his Rehgious Mysteries, has a chapter on this subject, in 
which he gives a fac-simile of an old drawing, called the 
Descent into Hell, in which Christ is represented as 
approaching the mouth of hell, v\'hile a devil addi'esses 
him, " Out, out, arongt,'" a word supposed to be a 
corruption of aroint ; or rather they are both said to be 
corrupted from the v,^ord arougt. It v\'Ould be too long, 
and perhaps not very interesting to readers in general, to 
quote all that relates to this subject : those who have 
any curiosity to see it will find it in the sixth chapter of 
that curious work : but a person animated with the zeal 
of a favourite theory might certainly perceive that the 
figure intended for Christ pays this visit under the pro- 
tection of a roan-tree cro.ss, vrhieli he bears in the left 



SYLVAN SKKTCHKS. 



hand, while with the right he appeal^ to draw a contrite 
spirit from the jaws of hell. 

Some think it should be printed anoint thee, instead of 
aroint thee. A ^^itch. in Ben Jonson's Masque of Queens, 
exclaims. 

Sisters, stay, we want our dame ; 

Call upon her by her name, 

And the charms we use to say : 

That she quickly anoint, and come away.'"' 

Anoint would carrv nearly the same meaning a.s 
avaunt ; it v,-ould. at least, si^iifv a prepai'ation for 
departure : for it is umderstood of that amiable >i-ter- 
hood, that when thev T\-ished to transport themselves 
from one place to another, thev alwavs anointed them- 
selves, and sometime- the tiling thev rode on. whatever 
that might lie, Some have inquired so deeply into this 
subject, as to know all the ingi'edients of the witch's 
ointment. 

Tliis is supposed to be the tree designed by Virgil, in 
the second Georgic. where he mentions several trees as 
bemg capable of grafting with others : 

'■^ Castaues fagus. ornusque incanuit albo 

Flore pyri. glandemque sues fregere sub ulmis." 

Thus mastful beech the bristly chestnut bears_, 
And the wild ash is white with blooming pears ; 
And greedy swine from grafted elms are fed 
With falling acorns, that on oaks are bred/' 

D li Y D I X s T r a ri sla t i o n . 

Modem gardeners, however, do not approve of grafting 
where there is no affinity. 

A poet of our own time-, and one whom all admirer> 



MOUNTAIN ASH TREE. 



253 



of fine poetry have so much reason to regret, has noticed 
the height of this tree, and the freshness of its berries : 

he was withal 

A man of elegance, and stature tall : 
So that the waving of his plumes would be 
High as the berries of a wild ash tree. 
Or as the winged cap of Mercury." 

Keats's Early Poems, p. 25. 

But what is higher beyond thought than thee ? 
Fresher than berries of a mountain tree ?" 

Keats's Sleep and Poetry. 



MULBERRY TREE. 



MORUS. 

URTIC^. MONCECIA TETKANDRIA. 

The derivation of the word Morus is uncertain : some derive it 
from Mora, a delay, or impediment, the tree putting forth its 
leaves very late in the season ; but it is more commonly derived 
from the Greek ; — as referring to the redness of its juice, the black- 
ness of its fruit, or, which is rather an odd notion, from a Greek 
word, signifying foolish ; — by a kind of contradiction ; the Mul- 
berry being reputed the wisest of trees in not budding till the 
severe weather has entirely gone by : hence Pliny gives it the 
epithet sapientissima. After all these ingenious surmises, it seems 
the name may, with at least equal propriety, be derived from the 
Greek name for the tree itself. What character the Greeks in- 
tended to express by that name must be decided by the learned. 

French, murier ; Italion, moro. 

There are five species of the Mulberry-tree suf- 
ficiently hardy to bear our climate without protection ; 
yet, notwithstanding their great beauty and utility, and 
the pains that have been taken to promote their cultiva- 
tion in this country, they are rarely seen among us. 

The White Mulberry, Morus alba^ a native of China, 
Cochin-china, Japan, and Persia, was cultivated by Ge- 
rarde in 1596. 

This species is cultivated for its leaves only, for the 
purpose of feeding silk-worms. It is in leaf a fortnight 
earlier than the next species. 

The Common, or Black Mulberry, Morus Nigra, is a 
larger and stronger tree than the former, and is much 



MULBERRY TREE. 



255 



esteemed for its dai'k juicv fruit. Evelyn says, the fruit 
of tliis tree, with the juice of cider-apples, makes an 
excellent and agreeable beverage. Old trees not only 
bear more fruit than young ones, but it is larger and 
better flavoured. 

This tree is a native of Persia, whence it was brought 
to the south of Europe, and has been cultivated in every 
pai't of our continent, where the climate is not too severe. 
It will not hve in the open air, in the northern pai'ts of 
Sweden; and in some parts of German}^, it is trained 
against walls as v/e train peaches and other tender fruits. 
This species was brought to England in the same year as 
the White Mulberry. 

Mrs. Holderness speaks of this tree as growing to a 
larger size in the Crimea than it is kno^na to attain in any 
other country; and as being remarkable there for its 
luxuriance, and the perfection of its fruit*. 

The Red Mulberry of Virginia, Morns Riibra^ is of 
quicker growth in this country than the two former, but 
is described by iVIartyn as not so easily propagated. 
Parkinson, in 1629, says it grows quickly to a great size ; 
that the fruit is longer and redder than the common 
Mulberry, and of a very pleasant taste. 

The Tartarian Mulberry, Morus Tatar ica, is a shrub 
of which the trunk is seldom so large as the human arm : 
the fruit is small and insipid ; it is, nevertheless, eaten 
fresh, in a conserve, or dried ; and in Russia, a wine and 
a spirit are made from it. 

All these species are used in feeding silk-worms, for 
which purpose nothing appears yet to have been dis- 

* Mrs. Holderness's Manners and Customs of the Crim-Tartars. 



^56 



SYLYA^^ SKETCHES. 



covered so valuable as Mulberry-leaves. In France, 
Italy, and some parts of Spain, the White Mulberry is 
chiefly cultivated for this use ; in Granada, the leaves of 
the Black Mulberry are preferred. The Persians gene- 
rally make use of the latter. Mr. Miller was assured by 
a gentleman who had tried both, that the worms fed with 
the Black Mulberry produced much the best silk. 

James the First, excited by the success of Henry the 
Fourth of France, was very earnest to introduce the 
culture of silk into this country ; and in the year 1608 
caused a circular letter of his own writing to be sent to 
the Lord Lieutenant of every county, holding forth the 
example of France, observing that, from the experience 
of many private persons who had bred silk-worms for 
amusement, there appeared no reason to doubt but that 
they might be nourished and reared in England, if pro- 
vision was made for planting Mulberry trees ; and desir- 
ing those whom he addressed to " persuade and require'' 
such persons as were able, to buy and distribute in the 
country mulberry plants, to the number of 10,000, which 
w^ere to be delivered in London at the rate of three 
farthings each. 

He likewise caused printed instructions to be published 
for planting and propagating Mulberry trees, and for 
rearing silk-worms. His Majesty's endeavours did not, 
however, succeed to any extent ; nor was he much more 
fortunate in a similar attempt in the American colo- 
nies. 

Evelyn, speaking of James's ill success, and of the 
revenue arising to the government of France from the 
culture of silk, ascribes its progress in that country, not 
to Henry the Fourth, but to the indefatigable dili- 



MULBERRY TREE. 



257 



gence of Monsieur Colbert, who so successfully revived 
it," continues he, " that it is prodigious to consider what 
an happy progress they have made in it ; to our shame 
be it spoken, who have no other discouragements what- 
ever but our sloth and want of industry ; since wherever 
these trees will grow and prosper, there the silk-worms 
will do so also. It is demonstrable that Mulberries, in 
four or five years, may be made to spread all over this 
land, and when the indigent and young daughters in 
proud families are as wilhng to gain three or four shil- 
Hngs a day for gathering silk, and busying themselves in 
this sweet and easy employment, as some do to get four- 
pence a day for hard work at hemp, flax, and wool, the 
reputation of Mulberries will spread in England and our 
plantations 

The Paper Mulberry, Morus Papyri/era^ is a native 
of China, Japan, and the South Sea islands ; it was cul- 
tivated by Hugh, Duke of Northumberland, about the 
middle of the eighteenth century. 

This tree takes its specific name from the use made of 
the bark by the Japanese. In December, after the 
leaves have fallen, they cut down the young shoots; 
these being divided into rods three feet in length, are 
gathered into bundles to be boiled ; they are placed erect 
and close in a large copper, properly closed; and the 
boiling is continued till the separation of the bark shows 
the naked wood ; after which, by a longitudinal incision, the 
bark is stripped off and dried, the wood being rejected. 

* This amiable writer speaks with great disapprobation of the 
education of young women in his time.— See Syh-a^, Hunter's ed. 
vol. ii. p. .53. 

s 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



To purify the bark, they keep it three or four hours in 
water ; and when it is sufficiently softened, the cuticle, 
which is of a dark colour, together with the greenish 
surface of the inner bark, is pared off ; at the same time 
the stronger bark is separated from the more tender, the 
former making the best and whitest paper ; the latter a 
dark and inferior kind. 

A cloth also is made from this bark, which is worn by 
the principal people in Otaheite, and the Sandwich 
islands, and is the finest and whitest they have. Some- 
times they dye it red. 

They have an inferior kind of cloth made from the 
bread-fruit tree, which is chiefly worn by the lower 
orders ; and a coarse and harsh kind from a tree resem- 
bling the wild fig tree of the West Indies; this is as 
dark as the darkest brown paper, but it is the most valuable 
cloth they have, because it resists water. This cloth is 
perfumed and worn by the chiefs in Otaheite, as a morn- 
ing dress*. 

The Mulberry tree is an excellent guide to the gar- 
dener, since the appearance of its leaves is an infallible 
sign that the severity of the season is over ; there is no 
longer any danger from frost. " When the leaf of the 
Mulberry bursts forth,*" says Evelyn, " the gardener may 
safely expose his green-house plants." Pliny recommends 
the gardener to pay attention to this circumstance, as a 
guide on various occasions. 

Horace recommends ripe Mulberries as a wholesome 
fruit : 

* See Cook's Voyages, vol. ii. ; or Martyn's edition of Miller's 
Gardener's Dictionary. 



MULBEKRY TRKE. 



— I lie salubres 

Estates peraget, qui nigris prandia moris 
Finiet, ante gravem quae legerit arbore solem." 

Satire iv. lib. 2. 

He shall with vigour bear the summer's heat. 
Who after dinner shall be sure to eat 
His mulberries, of blackest, ripest dyes, 
And gathered ere the morning sun arise." 

Francis's Horace. 

M. Dacier remarks upon this passage, that it has not 
been well understood : " The ancients," says he, " made 
but one meal, and those who could not stay till supper 
without eating, took some dry bread, raisins, figs, or 
mulberries, in the morning, and this repast was called 
prandium, gustus, &c." 

This remark is not mentioned with any intention of 
discussing the point here ; but from a conscientious fear 
of misleading the reader in another important point, for 
M. Dacier proceeds to say, that hov/ever wholesome this 
fine fruit may be when eaten in the morning, it is by no 
means advisable to eat it after a variety of meats ; and 
this assertion is supported by an authority no less than 
that of Galen *. 

Dr Clarke tells us, that he saw some Greeks in the 
Crimea employed in distilling brandy from mulberries ; 
which he describes as " a weak but palatable spirit, as 
clear as water -f-."" 

We learn from Ovid that the Mulberry derives its fine 
colour from the blood of the two unfortunate lovers, 
Pyramus and Thisbe. He tells us that it was originally 
snow-white, but that when Pyramus, in despair upon 
the supposed death of his mistress, killed himself with 

* See Dacier's Horace. t TraTels, Vol. i. p. 529. 

s 2 



260 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



his own sword, he fell under the shade of this tree ; 
Thisbe, finding him in this situation, followed his ex- 
ample, and their blood, flowing about the roots of the tree, 
was absorbed by them, and gave colour to the fruit : 

" Arborei foetus aspergine caedis in atrara 

Vertuntur faciem : madefactaque sanguine radix 
Puniceo tingit pendentia mora colore." 

OviD;, lib. iv. 

Dark in the rising tide the berries grew. 
And, white no longer, took a sable hue ; 
But brighter crimson springing from the root. 
Shot through the black, and purpled o'er the fruit." 

Orger's Translation. 

Cowley has spoken of the Mulberry tree at some 
length, and gives so correct an account of it, that, poorly 
as his poem has been translated, the reader will probably 
net object to the quotation of the passage : 

" But cautiously the Mulberry did move. 
And first the temper of the skies would prove ; 
What sign the sun was in, and if she might 
Give credit yet to winter's seeming flight : 
She dares not venture on his first retreat. 
Nor trusts her fruit or leaves to doubtful heat. 
Her ready sap within her bark confines. 
Till she of settled warmth has certain signs ! 
Then, making rich amends for the delay. 
With sudden haste she dons her green array ; 
In two short months, her purple fruit appears. 
And of two lovers slain the tincture wears. 
\ Her fruit is rich, but she doth leaves produce 

Of far- surpassing worth, and noble use. 
********* 

* * * * * * . * * * . 

* * * * They supply 
The ornaments of royal luxury : 



MUI.BEKllY THEE. 



261 



The beautiful they make more beauteous seem. 
The charming sex owe half their charms to them ; 
To them effeminate men their vestments owe ; 
How vain that pride which insect worm^s bestow !" 

Cov»'LEY on Plants, book v. 

In the mind of an Englishman, the Mulberry tree w ill 
ever be intimately associated with the miemory of our 
Shakespeare — of the v.orld's Shakespeare — of Nature's 
Shakespeare. It is generally knovxn that about the year 
1609, when King James so zealously recommended the 
cultivation of Mulberry trees, Shakespeare, a loyal sub- 
ject of nature and the king, planted one in his garden 
at New Place, Stratford. Mr. Drake mentions a person, 
the son of an alderman of Stratford, who in his youth 
remembered to have frequently eaten of the fruit of that 
tree, some of its branches hanging over the wall which 
divided that garden from his father's. 

In the year 1742, Garrick, Macklin, and Dr. Delany 
were entertained under the shade of that noble tree, by 
Sir Hugh Clopton, at that time proprietor of New Place. 
By the executor of that gentleman, it was afterwards 
sold to the Rev. Francis Gastrell, Vicar of Frodsham in 
Cheshire. Why would this man fix such an ugly blot 
upon his own memory ? This man, who was in possession 
of the house and garden of Shakespeare, of the very tree 
which he planted with his own hand ; could he, is it 
possible he could, be so wholly destitute of common feeling 
as to destroy them ? Surely he must have been utterly 
devoid of all soul, that such a neighbourhood did not in- 
spire him with something like natural sensibility, even 
though he had it not before ! It has been said that 
Pope's Willow was destroyed to relieve the lady to whom 



262 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



it belonged from the trouble of ansAvering frequent appli- 
cations for pemiission to see it : that was bad enough, 
quite lamentable enough, but that for such a paltry con- 
sideration, the world should have been deprived of 
Shakespeare's 3,Iulberry tree, is monstrous indeed ! This 
vicar, it seems, took a dislike to the tree, because it sub- 
jected him to the frequent importunities of travellers, 
vrhose zeal might prompt them to visit it, and, " in an 
e^^il hour," says ]Mr. Drake, the sacrilegious priest 
ordered the tree, then remarkably large, and at its full 
growth, to be cut down, which was no sooner done than 
it was cleft to pieces for firewood." 

Could this ]^ar. Gastrell so strangely deceive himself 
as to beheve that such a tree could be liis property ex- 
clusively ? Did he not know that it was the property of 
all England, that posterity had a share in it ? How 
many years lono;er mio^ht that tree ha\e lived and 
flourished : how long might art have preserved it, even 
in deca}' ; and Vv'ho but Islw Gastrell would have removed 
even the last hfeless rugged stump ? who but would have 
cherished it while the least splinter remained I Some 
little solace it is, that the greater pait of the wood was 
saved from the fire. It was puixhased by Mr. Thomas 
Shai-p, watchmaker^ of Stratford, who, well knowing the 
■s'alue set upon it by the world, turned it much to his own 
advantage, b}' converting every fragment into little boxes, 
tooth-pick cases, tobacco-stoppers, &:c. wliich were sought 
after with avidity. 

Having in 1756 destroyed the tree, it was not long 
before ]\Ir. Gastrell completed the sacrilege by destroying 
the house also. Compelled to pay the monthly assess- 
ments towards the maintenance of the poor, (some part 



MULBERRY TREE. 



263 



of which he hoped to escape by residing a part of the 
year at Lichfield ; his servants, however, still hving at 
New Place in his absence ;) he declared, in the violence 
of his anger, that that house should never be assessed 
again, " and,'' says Mr. Drake, " wishing, as it seems, to 
be damned to everlasting fame, the demohtion of the 
New Place soon followed ; for, in 1759, he rased the 
building to the ground, disposed of the materials, and 
left Stratford amidst the rage and the curses of its in- 
habitants 



* Drake's Shakespeare, vol. ii. p. 584. 



MYRICA. 



MYRICE^. DIOECIA TETRANDrvIA. 

The derivation of this name is uncertain ; some consider it as of 
Greek origin, and bearing allusion to its growth near streams, 
others suppose it to be named from jMyrrha, the daughter of 
Cynaras ; Fable having converted her into this plant. 

The Candleberry Myrtle, Myrica Gale^ is also called 
Sweet Gale, Goule, Gaule, Sweet Willow, Wild Myrtle, 
Dutch Myrtle ; and in Scotland, Gaal ; in French, Le 
Gale Odorant^ Le Ptrnxnt Rojjal, Myrtlie Bcttard^ 
My r the du Brabant^ Pimeiit de Mar ah. It has many 
shrubby stalks which rise from two to four feet high ; 
the blossoms appear before the leaves, vvith us in May : 
the leaves are an inch and a half long, and half an inch 
wide in the middle ; they are alternate, of a cheerful 
green, rather stiif, and covered over with little resinous 
points, which being crushed, emit a fragrant odour. The 
catkins are yellowish-brown, sprinkled over with resinous 
particles, shining like gold. The bark is rust-coloured, 
dotted Math white : the fruit is a coriaceous berry. 

This shrub grows spontaneously in the northern parts 
of Europe, and in the bogs of North America : it is not 
imcommon in England, more particularly in the northern 
and western counties, and is also a native of Ireland, 
Scotland, and Wales. The leaves have a bitter taste, 
and are used in some parts of the Highlands, and in some 



3IYHICA. 



265 



of the Western I^les, instead of hops ; a practice for- 
merly common in many parts of the north of Europe. 

The catkins being boiled in water, throw up a scum 
resembhng bees-wax, which, gathered in sufficient quan- 
tity, would make good candles. 

This shrub is used to tan calf-skin, and to dye wool 
yellow : the Welsh lay branches of it upon and under 
their beds, to keep oiF fleas and moths. In Jura the in- 
habitants garnish their dishes with it, and lay it am.ong 
their hnen to give it a fine scent, and to drive away moths. 
When it grows within reach of a port, the sailors make 
besoms of it to sweep their ships. In the Isle of Ely, it 
is made into faggots, to heat ovens. The leaves, dried 
and powdered, are used as spice, as sigTiified by some of 
the French names of the plant. 

Before the tea shrub was so well known as it now is, it 
was asserted by Simon Pauli, that it was the same with 
our Sweet Gale* 

The American Candleberry Myrtle, Myrica cerifera, 
i^ a tree thirty feet high : the leaves are twice the size of 
the last, and evergreen ; like the former giving out a 
grateful odour Y>^hen bruised. The berry is often covered 
with a sort of meal. It flowers in May and June. This 
species v>^as cultivated by the Duchess of Beaufort, in 
1699. 

In North America, candles are made from the berries 
of this tree, whence it is called Tallow shrub ; by some, 
more elegantly, the Candleberry tree. Others name it 
the Bay-berry bush. Like the formier,it afffects a wet soil, 
and agrees with the true myrtle in its love of the sea- 
.shore. 

* See Martyn's Milltr. 



S66 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



The candles made from these berries do not so easily 
bend or melt, in summer, as the tallow candles do ; they 
burn better and slower, cause no smoke, and yield rather 
a pleasant smell when extinguished. 

A soap also is made from this wax, which has a plea- 
sant scent, and is reckoned excellent for shaving : it is 
sometimes used as an ointment by surgeons. In Carolina, 
sealing-wax is made from these berries, and the root is 
considered as specific in the tooth- ache. 

There are several other species from warm countries. 
Thunberg mentions one, a native of the Cape of Good 
Hope, which also is used for making candles. He gives a 
hasty sketch of the way in which they are made. It is 
there called the Wax shrub. 

" The branches of the Wax shrub,'' says he " (My- 
rica cordi/olia), the berries of which are covered with a 
fat substance resembling bees-wax, were put whole into 
a pot of boiling water, in order to melt and skim off the 
wax. It resembles grey impure wax, is harder than tal- 
low, and somewhat softer than wax. The farmers use it 
for candies, and the Hottentots eat it like a piece of 
bread, either with or without meat 

A little farther on he expresses himself nearly to the 
same effect. " The berries,'' says he, " are quite round, 
full of knobs, soft, and of the size of a pea. The berries 
themselves are quite black, but covered with a farina of 
a whitish-grey colour. They are gathered in their ripe 
state in the month of March, and boiled in water till all 
the white powder is melted off, and floats on the surface 
of the water like fat ; this, when skimmed off, and 



Thunberg's Travels^ vol. i. p. 167. 



MYRICA. 



^67 



cooled, grows hard almost like wax, and is of a greenish- 
grey, or ash-colour. The farmers use it for candles, and 
the Hottentots eat it like so much cheese *. 

This last shrub has been cultivated in England since 
1759. 

* Thunberg's Travels, vol. i. p. 249. 



NETTLE TREE. 



CELTIS. 

ULMACE^. rOLYGAMIA MONCECIA. 

Called also the lote, or lotus tree. French, micocoulier ; Italian, 
loto. 

The European Nettle tree, Celtis Australis, or Black- 
fruited Lote tree, grows with an erect stem, forty or 
fifty feet high, with many slender branches : the leaves 
are alternate, about four inches long, and two broad in 
the middle. The flowers make no show ; the fruit is 
black, of the size of a pea. 

It grows in the south of Europe to a great size : 
D'Asso mentions some in Spain prodigiously large and 
high. Martyn remarks, that " its fine regular spreading 
head, and cheerful green colour, render this tree ex- 
tremxcly proper for clumps in parks, groves, single trees, 
or avenues.'" 

Cask-hoops and fishing-rods are made of the branches, 
and the berries are eaten by birds and boys. 

The American Nettle tree, Celtis Occidentalism has 
broader and shorter leaves than the former, and smaller 
fruit, which, when ripe, is dark purple. Where the soil 
is moist and rich, this tree grows very large. It blossoms 
in May, and the seed ripens in October. The leaves 
come out late in the spring, but it is the latest in fading 
of any deciduous tree. There is little beauty in the 



NETTLE TREE. 



269 



flowers or fruit ; but the branches being well clothed 
with leaves, and the leaves of a fine green, the tree makes 
an agreeable variety in plantations. 

The wood being tough and pliable, is esteemed by 
coach-makers for carriage-frames. In America, the 
fruit of this tree, which is generally called sugar-nut, is 
thought very pleasant eating. It is a favourite food 
^vith many American birds. 

The Oriental Nettle tree, Celtis Orientalis, is a native 
of the Levant ; it seldom grows higher than twelve feet, 
and divides into many branches, which spread horizon- 
tally on every side. The leaves are about an inch long, 
inchning to a heart shape ; they are of a thicker texture, 
and a lighter green than those of the former kinds : the 
fruit is yellow, becoming darker as it ripens ; the wood 
remarkably white. 

Some have erroneously supposed the Celtis to be 
Homer's lotus : 

They went and found an hospitable race : 
Not prone to ill, nor strange to foreign guest. 
They eat, they drink, and nature gives the feast ; 
The trees around them all their food produce, 
Lotus the name ; divine, nectareous juice ! 
(Thence called Lotophagi) which whoso tastes. 
Insatiate riots in the sweet repasts ; 
Nor other home, nor other care attends. 
But quits his house, his country, and his friends." 

Pope's Homer. 

Evelyn says of it, that " it yields an admirable shade, 
and timber immortal, growing to a vast tree where it 
grows spontaneously, but its fruit seems not so tempt- 
ing as it was storied it was to the companions of 
Ulysses.'' 



S70 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



" And them amongst the wicked lotos grew, 
Wicked, for holding guilefully away 
Ulysses' men, whom rapt with sweetness new. 
Taking to host, it quite from him did stay." 

Spenser. 

It is now pretty well ascertained, and generally be- 
lieved, that Homer''s lotus is a species of the rhamnus, 
a native of Barbary. Dr. Shaw, in his travels in that 
country, had frequent opportunities of examining this 
tree : he found it on the very borders of the country of 
the Lotophagi : others have found it in various parts ; 
and it is supposed to be disseminated over the edge of the 
Great Desert, from the coast of Cyrene, round by Tri- 
poli and Africa proper, to the borders of the Atlantic, 
the Senegal, and the Niger. Major Rennell saw it in 
Bengal, where it is called byre, and in dry places on the 
banks of the Ganges. The people there eat the fruit, as 
we do sloes and wild berries. 

Pliny describes the fruit of the size of a bean, of a 
yellow colour, sweet, and pleasant-tasted : he says that 
it was bruised, made into a paste, and then stored up 
for food. A sort of wine was also made from it, re- 
sembling mead, but it would not keep many days. 
Pliny adds, armies in marching through that part of 
Africa have subsisted on the lotus. 

Polybius, who was employed by Scipio Africanus to 
explore the coasts of Africa, says that the fruit is pro- 
duced by a shrub which is rough and armed with spires, 
resembling the rhamnus in foliage ; that when ripe, it is 
of the size of a round olive, is tinged with purple, and 
contains a hard stone : that being pounded, it is laid by 
for use ; and that its flavour approaches to that of figs or 
dates : finally, that a kind of wine is made of it, by ex- 



NETTLE TREE. 



pression, and diluted with water ; that it affords a good 
beverage, but will not keep more than ten days. 

Mr. Park describes the fruit as a small farinaceous 
yellow berry, of a delicious taste : the natives, he says, 
convert them into a sort of bread, by exposing them some 
days to the sun, and afterwards pounding them gently in 
a wooden mortar, until the farinaceous part is separated 
from the stone. 

This meal is mixed with water and formed into cakes, 
which, when dried in the sun, resemble in colour and 
flavour the sweetest gingerbread. The stones afterwards 
being put into a vessel of water, are shaken about to se- 
parate the meal which may still adhere to them : this 
communicates to the water a sweet and agreeable taste, 
and, with the addition of a httle powdered millet, makes 
a pleasant gruel, called fendi, which is the common 
» breakfast in many parts of Ludomar, during the months 
of February and March. 

Mr. Brown, also, says that the natives eat the fruit 
fresh, or dry ; that when dry it is formed into a paste of 
pleasant flavour, and is a portable provision on journeys. 

Xhe wood of the Lotus tree was used by the ancients 
for flutes and other musical instruments. 

Besides the tree Lotus, now called the Rhamnu& 
Lotus, the ancients mention a herb of that name : Homer 
describes it as a food given to the horses of Achilles, and 
Virgil recommends it for sheep : 

At cui lactis amor, cytisum, lotosque frequentis 
Ipse manu, salsasque ferat praesepibus herbas." 

Georgic. iii. 

^' But those who desire to have milk must give them with their 
own hands plenty of water-lilies, and lay salt herbs in their cribs." 

Martyn's Translation. 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



The word Lotus is here translated water-hly, for it is 
generally supposed to have been the plant now called 
Nymphgea Lotus, a kind of white water-hly. There is 
a genus now bearing the name of Lotus, which has no 
connexion with either Lotus of the ancients ; — it is called 
in English the bird^s-foot-trefoil. 



NEW JERSEY TEA TREE. 



CEANOTHUS AMERICANUS. 

RHAMNE*. PENTANDRIA MOXOGYXIA, 

French, ceanotlie ; Italian, ceaiioto. 

The American Ceanothus, or New Jersey Tea Tree, 
seldom grows higher than four feet in England, but 
being much branched, from the ground upwards, and 
well clothed with oval leaves of a light cheerful green, it 
makes a pretty variety, more especially in July, when it 
is in blossom. The flowers, though small, are of a clear 
white, and so numerous, that the whole shrub appears 
covered with them. In mild seasons this shrub will 
flower again in October. ' 

The Ceanothus affords a dye for wool, of a fine nankeen 
cinnamon colour ; its leaves are dried, and used in Ame- 
rica as tea. 

This shrub was cultivated in the episcopal garden at 
Fulham, in 1713, but was afterwards lost in England 
for many years, and again introduced from America. 
It is now not uncommon in our gardens and nurseries. 

There is an evergreen species of Ceanothus, which is 9, 
native of the Cape, and has been cultivated here since 
1712. It seldom produces flowers in this country, but 
its bright green leaves make a pretty variety in the 
green-house during the winter ; for this last species 
must have winter protection ; the former will bear this 
climate very well. 

T 



OAK TREE, 



QUERCUS. 

CORyHDE.E. MOXCECIA POLYANDRIA. 

French, chene ; Italian, querela. 

There are many species of Oak, which to describe, 
with their uses ancient and modern, and all the fables or 
histories connected with them, would' be to write a vo- 
lume upon that subject only, — and a volume of consi- 
derable magnitude. For the present purpose it will 
suffice to notice a few of the more important. 

Among the American Oaks are several species which 
are evergreen. Of those which are natives of Europe, 
there is but one properly so called, though others are 
sometimes termed so, because they generally retain their 
leaves until the shooting of new ones drives off the old. 
It has been observed of the Oak, that the foliage is 

" Tenacious of the stem, and firm against the wind." 

The Kermes Oak, Quercus coccifera, is of humble 
growth, and chiefly mentioned on account of a red gall 
collected from it, occasioned by the puncture of an insect 
called the coccus ilicis. This furnished the ancients with 
a scarlet dye, called coccus, or coccineus, wliich superseded 
the purpura obtained by the Phoenicians from the shell- 
fish murex^ and supported its reputation until the dis- 
covery of America, when it yielded to the cochineal, an 



OAK TREE. 



275 



insect found upon the cactus, or Indian fig, in the woods 
of Mexico. 

This species is a native of the Levant, and of the 
south of Europe, and was cultivated here in 1683, by 
Mr. J. Sutherland. 

The Itahan Oak, Quercus Esculus, is by some persons 
supposed to be the Esculus of the Romans ; others sup- 
pose the Esculus to have been a variety of our Common 
Oak, called the Sessile-fruited. Authors are by no 
means agreed upon this subject, which still remains a 
question with those who are curious in these things. 

The Italian Oak has been named Esculus, from the 
esculent quahty of the acorns, which, in times of scarcity, 
are frequently eaten by the poor in the south of France, 
ground, and made into bread : some eat them fresh 
like nuts ; they are sweet, and very different from our 
Enghsh acorns. 

This Oak was cultivated by Mr. Miller in 1739. 

The Red Oak, Quercus rubra, is a North American, 
and in its native land grows very large ; the leaves are 
of a bright green, wliich they preserve until very late 
in the autumn. This species was cultivated by Bishop 
Compton in 1691. There are several varieties ; the 
Champion, the Scarlet, and the Mountain Red Oak. 

The Common Oak, or as some call it, the Enghsh Oak, 
Qiiercus Robur, is too well known to need description : of 
this species there are usually enumerated three varieties *, 
the Stalk-fruited, the Sessile-fruited, and the Dwarf : 
but the most modern botanists consider them as separate 
species, and name them Quercus pedunculata, Q. robur, 
and Q. nana. 

* Italian,, Ischia. 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



The wood of this Oak is hard, tough, tolerably flexible, 
and not easily admitting water ; it is strong, without be- 
ing too heavy, and not apt to splinter. For these qua- 
lities, it is valued for building ships. " There is a kind 
of it,"' says Evelyn, " so tough and compact, that our 
hardest tools will hardly enter it.^' 

" The most valued quaKties of the Oak,'" remarks Mr. 
Gilpin, " are hardness and toughness. Box and ebony 
are harder, yew and ash are tougher than the oak, but 
no timber is possessed of both these qualities together in 
so great a degree as the British Oak." 

The sawdust is an ingredient in many brown and drab- 
coloured dyes ; the Oak apples, also, are used in dyeing, 
as a substitute for galls. The bark is used in tanning 
leather, and afterwards is valuable to the gardeners in 
raising many tender plants. A blue dye for wool is pre- 
pared by infusing Oak bark with a little copperas ; it is 
not particularly brilliant, but is very lasting. 

The leaves are often dried and used for litter ; these, 
too, are serviceable to the gardeners ; there is a honey- 
dew upon them, in which bees take great delight. The 
aphis of the Oak extracts the juice from the leaves, which 
is afterwards passed through her horns, and forms the 
honey-dew so grateful to flies and bees. Linnaeus has 
given to this aphis the name of the anf s milch-cow, be- 
cause that interesting little creature is said to drink the 
juice from its horns. 

Roucel, in his Flora du Nord de France, says that 
" these acorns, roasted, ground, and made into bread, have 
been eaten in times of scarcity ; that they may be used 
as cofl'ee, which they resemble in flavour, and that so 
used they have the property of strengthening the nerves : 
he says the fresh fruit has an agreeable taste, and may 



OAK TREE. 



277 



be eaten like nuts, or chestnuts*." They must be con- 
siderably improved by the soil and climate of France. 

The Ilex, Evergreen, or Holm Oak, Quercus ilex, is 
a native of the south of Europe, Cochinchina, and Bar- 
bary. Gerarde speaks of it, in 1597, as a stranger in 
England ; " notwithstanding there is here and there a 
tree thereof that has been brought from beyond seas.""* 
The French call this tree Chene vert ; the Italians, 
Elice, or Leccio. It is not easy to describe the leaf, for one 
individual will often be clothed with foliage of different 
kinds : some are sinuated, and set with prickles ; others 
are smaller, and neither sinuated nor prickled ; they are 
of a lucid green, and their length is commonly from 
three to four inches ; the under side is rather downy. 
The acorn is of the same shape as that of the Common 
Oak, but smaller. 

There is a variety of this, by some called the Spanish 
Oak, of which the acorns are eaten either raw or roasted. 
This may be the Ilex to which the Spanish poet alludes 
in these lines : 

hast thou forgotten, too. 

Childhood's sweet sports, whence first my passion grew. 

When from the bowery ilex I shook dovv^n 

Its autumn fruit, which on the craig's high crown 

We tasted, sitting, chattering, side by side ? 

Who climbed trees swinging o'er the hoarse deep tide. 

And poured into thy lap, or at thy feet 

Their kernelled nuts, the sweetest of the sweet ? 

When did I ever place my foot within 

The flowery vale, brown wood, or dingle green. 

And culled not thousand odorous flowers, to crest 

Thy golden curls, or breathe upon thy breast ?" 

Wiffen'^s Garcilasso, p. 215. 



* Vol. ii. p. 338. 



278 



SYI.VAN SKETCHES. 



The fruit must, indeed, be very superior to that of 
our oaks, for no English lover would pride himself upon 
feeding his mistress with acorns, and call them the 
sweetest of sweet kernels. This must be the tree of 
which the poet speaks : it would be yet more strange to 
feed her with holly-berries than with English acorns ; 
and it has been observed that in France, Spain, &c. 
acorns are eaten as nuts. They are described as really 
sweet and pleasant ; and, were they not so, tastes differ 
no less than fruits ; and we are told that in old times the 
beech-nut was thought preferable to the sweet chestnut ; 
and some writers passed their jokes upon the singular 
care with which so useless and undesirable a kernel as 
the latter was defended from injury by its armed shell. 
Gerarde, too, calls the horse-chestnut a sweet and pleasant 
food : if he spoke this from experience, and not from mere 
conjecture or hearsay, we need not wonder that acorns of 
any kind should be considered as a luxury. 

Strabo says, that in the mountainous parts of Spain, 
the inhabitants ground their acorns into meal ; and Pliny 
affirms, that in his time acorns were brought to table 
with the dessert, in Spain. Cervantes, too, describes 
Theresa as collecting the best acorns she could find, to 
send as a present to the duchess. 

Garcilasso again mentions the Ilex, in company with 
the Oak commonly so called : 

" But in calm idlesse laid. 
Supine in the cool shade 
Of oak, or ilex, beech, or pendant pine. 
Sees his flocks feeding stray 
Whitening a length of way, 
Or numbers up his homeward-tending kine." / 

P. 198- 



OAK TREE. 



279 



The ilex grows much quicker than the Common Oak, 
and the wood is tougher. It was not brought into ge- 
neral cultivation here till the beginning of the eighteenth 
century. There is a variety called the Holly-leaved Oak, 
which some botanists consider as a different species, under 
the name of Quercus Gramuntia. 

There is a species called the Chestnut-leaved Oak, 
Quercus prinus, of which the foliage is so similar to that 
of the chestnut tree, that it is not immediately to be di- 
stinguished from it. 

The Velani Oak, Quercus JEgilops, is a very fine tree ; 
a native of the Levant, and of the south of Europe. The 
acorns are brought from the Levant for dyeing : they are 
called Valonia, from the Romaic name of the tree : they 
are very large, and have scaly cups, nearly the length 
of the fruit. 

An Englishman claims a right to the Oak, as though 
no other country possessed such a tree, or no other Oak 
were to be compared with the British. Virgil has praised 
the Esculus, and the Esculus is understood to be an Oak ; 
surely then it must be ours ! Pliny has praised the 
Phagus, and lhat is supposed to be an Oak ; then that, 
too, must be ours. It is an awkward fact that the Oak 
is generous enough to bestow itself upon any tolerably 
temperate climate ; it is not fastidious in soil, but will 
not bear a very cold, or a very warm climate. America 
boasts of very fine Oaks, of many species, especially one 
called the Live Oak : it were a dangerous temerity to 
say that the British Oak is not the sovereign of them all, 
nay, of all trees whatsoever : it were a temerity not to be 
feared from one of British birth ; and Britain, at least, 
may boast of having turned it to the best account, and 
paid it the most grateful homage. The Roman;> only 



280 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



can compare with the Enghsh in the vakie they have set 
upon this noble tree. 

England has borne some magnificent Oaks. Evelyn 
mentions two that grew in Suffolk, which were of innnense 
size, and were used in building the Royal Sovereign ; 
another, that shaded a circumference of five hundred 
and sixt}' yards ; under -^ liich two thousand four hun- 
dred and twenty men could find convenient shelter ; and 
a yet larger, near the gate of the water walk at Magdalen 
College, of which the branches stretched sixteen yards 
from the stem. Of this last, Dr. Hunter tells us, that it 
was blomi down on the 29th of June 1789, after having 
stood on classic ground neai'ly five hundred years. It was 
generally known by the name of Addison's Oak, Addison 
liaving shomi a regard for it by placing a bench under 
its shade, on which he frequently reposed himself after 
walking. 

In Lord Norris's Park, at Rycote, was an Oak, of 
which Evelyn says " it extended its arms fifty-four feet, 
under which three hundi'ed and four horses, or four 
thousand three hundred and seventy-four men may suf- ^ 
ficiently stand.'" 

Mart^^i speaks of three Oaks planted by Chaucer in 
Dennington Park, which grew to a great size ; one 
was called the King's, the second the Queen's, and the 
third, Chaucer's Oak. 

At Morlejf , in Cheshii'e, grew an Oak, supposed when 
measured to be eight hundi'ed years old; the trunk, 
w^iich was hollow, was forty-two feet in circumference ; 
it had for many years been used for housing cattle. 
Tradition says that Edward the Black Prince once dined 
' under its shade. 

The boughs of an Oak in Worksop Park measiu'cd, 



OAK TREE, 



^81 



from one extremity to the other, a hundred and eighty 
feet. 

Another, measuring but half this width, is remarkable 
for uniting under its shade the counties of York, Derby, 
and Nottingham, whence it is called Shire Oak. 

The Cowthorpe Oak, in Yorkshire, of which there are 
prints in Hunters Evel^Ti, was eighty-five feet high, and 
the trunk seventy- eight feet round. 

The Boddington Oak, in the Vale of Gloucester, mea- 
sured fifty-four feet in the circumference of the trvmk. 

An Oak in Shropsliire measured sixty-eight feet 
round, and one inWelbeck Pai'k, Nottinghamshire, called 
the Duke's Walking-stick, was a hundred and ele\en 
feet high. 

The Greendale Oak, in Nottinghamshire, of which 
there are several views in Hunter's Evelyn, v/as eighty- 
eight feet high, the trunk thirty-three feet one inch 
round ; and it was, when measured, above seven hundred 
years old. Carriages have been driven through the 
hollow trunk of this tree, but it is now fenced round by 
the care of the Duke of Portland, to protect it from the 
ravages of wanton or curious visiters. 

At Fahlop, in Essex, grew an Oak, of which the trunk 
measured thirty -six feet round, the circumference of the 
boughs at their extent was three hundred feet. It was 
a custom for the blockmakers of Wapping to hold an 
annual meeting under its shade on the first Friday in 
July, which festival was founded by Mr. Daniel Day, 
a blockmaker of that place, who always dined under 
it on that day with a select party of friends. The 
\asitants proceeded there in boats, placed on carriages, 
and ornamented with flags, which collecting much idle 
rabble, this oak is now cut down, and the pulpit and 



282 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



reading-desk of Saint Pancras church, Euston Square, 
have been made from its timber. 

The trunk of Damorv's Oak, in Dorsetshke, measured 
sixty-eight feet round ; as this large trunk decayed, it 
formed a cavity fifteen feet wide, and seventeen high, 
capable of containing twenty men. Duriug the civil wars 
after the Restoration, this was inliabited bv an old man 
who sold ale in it. By the storm of 1703, it lo^t some 
of its noblest hmbs. In 1755, when fit for nothing but 
firewood, it was sold for 14/. 

In Suffolk is, or was very lately, an Oak of whidi the 
trunk measured thuty-five feet round. It was hollow in 
the time of Queen Elizabeth, of whom it is reported that, 
in her youth, she would often take her stand under it to 
shoot at the deer as they passed. It is hence called 
Queen Elizabeth's Oak. This does not appear an occu- 
pation worthv of Elizabeth. 

Of Eisher's Oak, a ti'ee of immense bulk^ about 17 
miles from London, in the way to Tunbridge, it is said that 
when King J ames the First travelled that way, a school- 
master of the neighbourhood, and all his scholars, decked 
with oaken gai'lands, came out of the tree in great num- 
bers, and entertained the king with an oration. They 
have a tradition at Tunbridge that thirteen men on 
horseback were once sheltered within tliat Oak. 

In Stirling are the ruins of an old Oak supposed to 
have been the largest tree that ever grew in Scotland ; 
around which are the vestiges of one of those circles at- 
tributed to the Druids. When William Wallace roused 
the Scotch to oppose Edward, he often assembled his 
army at TorAvood, and this Oak is said to have been his 
head-quarters. Hence it has ever since borne the title of 
Wallace's Oak. 



OAK TREE. 



283 



There is an Oak in the New Forest, near Cadenham, 
and called the Cadenham Oak, which is remarkable for 
budding every year in the depth of winter, like the 
Glastonbury Thorn ; it is said by the country people to 
produce its buds always on Christmas-day. These pre- 
mature buds, after unfolding themselves, make no fur- 
ther progress, but \vither away, and the tree again vege- 
tates in the usual season, in the same manner as others of 
its species. 

An Oak was planted at Penshurst, on the day of Sir 
Philip Sidney's birth, of which Martyn speaks as stand- 
ing in his time, and measuring twenty-two feet round. 
This tree has since been felled, it is said by mistake : 
would it be impossible to make a similar mistake with 
regard to the mistaker 9 

Several of our poets have celebrated this tree ; Ben 
Jonson, in his lines to Penshurst, says 

" Thou hast thy walks for health as well as sport ; 
Thy mount to which thy Dryads do resort. 
Where Pan and Bacchus their high seats have made. 
Beneath the broad beech and the chestnut shade. 
That taller tree which of a nut was set. 
At his great birth where all the muses met. 
There in the writhed bark are cut the names 
Of many a sylvan taken with his flames." 

It is mentioned by Waller : ^ 

" Go, boy, and carve this passion on the bark 
Of yonder tree, which stands the sacred mark 
Of noble Sidney's birth." 

Southey says, speaking of Penshurst : 

^' Sidney here was born, 

Sidney, than whom no geiitkr. braver man. 



284 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



His own delightful genius ever feigned. 

Illustrating the vales of Arcady 

With courteous courage, and with loyal loves. 

Upon his natal day the acorn here 

Was planted ; it grew up a stately Oak, 

And in the beauty of its strength it stood 

And flourished, when his perishable part 

Had mouldered dust to dust. That stately Oak 

Itself hath mouldered now, but Sidney's name 

Endureth in his own immortal works." 

This tree was frequently called tlie Bare Oak, by the 
people of the neighbourhood, from a resemblance it was 
supposed to bear to the Oak which gave name to the 
county of Berkshire. Tradition says that when the 
tenants went to the Park-gates, as it was their custom to 
do, to meet the Earls of Leicester when they visited that 
castle, they used to adorn their hats with boughs from 
this tree. Within the hollow of its trunk, was a seat 
which contained five or six persons v^ith ease and conve- 
nience. 

The Oak at Boscobel which sheltered Charles the 
Second after the battle of Worcester, was in great repute 
in the last century ; and many trees were raised from its 
acorns. The king visiting the spot some time after, took 
some of the acorns away, which he set in St. James's 
Park, and used to tend and watch their growth himself. 
It is said that one of those trees was removed from thence 
at the building of Marlborough House. It is still cus- 
tomary, on the 29th of May, the Restoration of Charles 
the Second, for the common people to wear Oak leaves 
or Oak apples in their hats ; some adorn them with leaf- 
gold ; but the custom is gradually declining. 

" I have been told," says Evelyn, " that there was an 
intention to institute an Order of the Royal Oak ; and 



OAK TREE. 



283 



truly I should think it would become a green ribbon, next 
to that of St. George, superior to any of the romantic 
badges to v/hich such veneration is paid abroad ; de- 
servedly to be worn by such as have signalized them- 
selves by their conduct and courage in the defence and 
preservation of their country." 

At Worthorpe, in Lincolnshire, is an Oak, in the hol- 
low trunk of which six calves are fattened every season. 

" A tree is still shown in Windsor Forest, as Heme's 
Oak,'" says Martyn, but from its size and vigour he 
doubts whether it could have been a proper tree for 
Heme the hunter to have danced round more than two 
centuries ago. Whether the tree be actually standing 
or not, its memory will live, while there lives a man to 
cherish it. 

" The fairies from their nightly haunt 

In copse^ or dell^ or round the trunk revered 
Of Heme's moon-silvered oak, shall chase away 
Each fog, each blight, and dedicate to peace 
Thy classic shade." 

W. TiGHE. 

Many places in England take their names from the 
Oak tree, as Berkshire from a bare Oak — 

^' An aged oak, of leaves and branches bare," 

at which the people of that county used to assemble : 
Oakingham, Oakhampton, Oakington, Aukland, Baldock, 
Hatfield Broad-oak, Acca in Somersetshire, Greenock 
in Scotland, Seven Oaks, &c. 

Virgil has, as Mr. Gilpin observes, in a few words 
brought together the most obvious qualities of this noble 
tree ; its firmness, the stoutness of its limbs, the twisting 
of its branches, their wide-spreading, and its longevity. 



286 



SYLVx^N SKETCHES. 



which he supposes to exceed that of every other tree, 
except, perhaps, the yew. 

^sculus in primis_, qu£e, quantum vertice ad auras 
^therias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit. 
Ergo non hiemes illam, non flabra^ neque imbres 
Convellunt : immota manet, multosque nepotes, 
Multa virum volvens durando saecula, vincit ; 
Turn fortis late ramos et brachia tendens 
Hue illuc, media ipsa ingentem sustinet umbram." 

Georgic ii. 

" Jove's own tree 

That holds the woods in awful sovereignty. 

Requires a depth of lodging in the ground ; 

And, next the lower skies^ a bed profound. 

High as his topmost boughs to heaven ascend. 

So low his roots to hell's dominion tend. 

Therefore nor winds, nor winter's rage o'erthrows 

His bulky body but unmoved he grows. 

For length of ages lasts his happy reign. 

And lives of mortal men contend in vain : 

Full in the midst of his own strength he stands. 

Stretching his brawny arms, and leafy hands ; 

His shade protects the plains, his head the hills commands." 

Dryden. 

In the Eneid, speaking of the Oak by the name of 
Quercus, the poet uses the same expression with regard 
to the depth of its roots : 

^' Ac velut, annoso validam quum robore quercum 
Alpini Borese nunc hinc nunc flatibus illinc 
Eruere inter se certant ; it stridor, et alte 
Consternunt terram concusso stipite frondes : 
Ipsa haeret scopulis : et quantum vertice ad auras 
iEtherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit." 

Book iv. 



OAK TREE. 



§87 



As when the winds their airy quarrel try. 

Jostling from every quarter of the sky, 

This way and that the mountain oak they bend. 

His boughs they shatter, and his branches rend ; 

With leaves and falling mast they spread the ground, 

The hollow valleys echo to the sound : 

Unmoved the royal plant their fury mocks, 

Or shaken, clings more closely to the rocks ; 

Far as he shoots his towering head on high. 

So deep in earth his fixed foundations lie." 

Dr YD en's Virgil. 

" The Oak,'"* observes Mr. Gilpin, " is confessedly 
the most picturesque tree in itself, and the most accom- 
modating in composition. It refuses no subject, either in 
natural, or in artificial landscape. It is suited to the 
grandest, and may with propriety be introduced into the 
most pastoral. It adds new dignity to the ruined tower, 
and Gothic arch ; it throws its arms with propriety over 
the mantling pool, and may be happily introduced even 
in the lowest scene.^' 

" Imperial oak, a cottage in thy shade 
Finds safety, or a monarch in thy arms : 
Respectful generations see thee spread. 
Careless of centuries, even in decay 
Majestic : thy far-shadowing boughs contend 
With time ; the obsequious winds shall visit thee. 
To scatter round the children of thy age. 
And eternize thy latest benefits." 

W. TiGHE. 

" It is remarkable,'' says Dr. Hunter, " that the Oak 
was held sacred by the Greeks, the Romans, the Gauls, 
and the Britons." 

It is frequently mentioned by the Roman poets as the 
tree of Jove, to whom it w^as dedicated. Near to Chaonia 



.^88 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



(a mountainous part of Epirus, so called from Chaon, 
one of the sons of Priam), was a forest of Oaks, called 
the Chaonian, or Dodonean Forest, where oracles were 
given, as some say, by the trees themselves ; according 
to others, by the winds of the forest that whispered 
through them ; and others maintain that they were pro- 
nounced by sacred doves. Virgil sometimes applies the 
epithet Chaonian to Jove himself, from this forest, which 
was consecrated to him : 

" Chaoniique patris glandes:" 

^'^ The acorns of our Chaonian father." 

Ovid distinguishes the Chaonian Oak from the Esculus. 
Among the trees assembled to hear the lyre of Orpheus, 
he mentions the Chaonian tree : 

" Chaonis abfuit arbos.'' 

And afterwards the Esculus : 

" — — ' non frondibus esculis altis." 

Speaking of the simple food of the ancients; as the 
fruit of the Arbutus, &c. he adds, 

" Et qufE deciderant patula Jovis arbore glandes." 

" And acorns dropping from the tree of Jove." 

Dr. Orger's Ovid. 

Lucan, speaking of trees felled in a sacred wood, says, 

" Then Jove's Dodonean tree was forced to bow.'' 

Rowe's Lucan. 

Wordsworth alludes to the oracle of Jupiter : 



OAK TREE. 



^89 



" Oak of Guernica ! Tree of holier power 
Than that which in Dodona did enshrine, 
(So faith too fondly deemed) a voice divine. 
Heard from the depths of its aerial bower. 
How canst thou flourish at this blighting hour ? 
WTiat hope, what joy can sunshine bring to thee. 
Or the soft breezes from the Atlantic sea, 
The dews of morn, or April's tender shower ? 

Stroke merciful and welcome would that be 
Which would extend thy branches on the ground. 
If never more within their shady round 
Those lofty-minded lawgivers shall meet. 
Peasant, and lord, in their appointed seat ; 
Guardians of Biscay's ancient liberty/' 

In Ford's play of the Sun's Darling, Winter thus re- 
proves the clowns : 

" Yet you, wild fools, possessed with giant rage. 
Dare, in your lawless fury, think to wage 
War against heaven ; and from his shining throne 
Pull Jove himself, for you to tread upon ; 
Were your heads circled with his own green oak. 
Yet they are subject to his thunder-stroke." 

It is well kno^vn that in the early ages, acorns were an 
important species of food : the substitution of corn, in 
ancient Rome, was attributed to the bounty of Ceres, 
who, by means of Triptolemus, taught them its use and 
cultivation : 

" Liber, et alma Ceres ; vestro si munere tellus 
Chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit arista, 
Poculaque inventis Acheloia miscuit uvis." 

Virgil, Georgic i. 

Bacchus, and fostering Ceres, powers divine. 
Who gave us corn for mast, for water wine." 

Dr YD en's Virgil, 
u 



S90 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Martyn observes, that Virgil poetically speaks of 
Chaonian or Dodonean acorns for acorns in general, 
those being the most celebrated. It appears that, when 
speaking merely of the trees or acorns, the word Chaonian 
is commonly used, but in such passages as relate to Jove, 
or to the sacred oracles, directly or indirectly, we gene- 
rally find the word Dodonean. This, however, is by no 
means invariable : witness the following passage from 
Virgil ; yet this bears some reference to the sacred nature 
of the place : 

^' Prima Ceres ferro mortalis vertere terram 
Instituit : quum jam glandes atque arbuta sacrae 
Deficerent silvee, et victum Dodona uegaret." 

Georgic i. 

Ceres first taught mankind to plough the ground, when mast 
and arbutes began to fail in the sacred wood, and Dodona denied 
them sustenance." 

Martyn's Translation. 

Spenser also alludes to this circumstance : the goddess 
was supposed to have instructed Triptolemus in agri- 
culture, and to have lent him her chariot, in which he 
travelled all over the earth, distributing corn to the 
inhabitants : 

" The oak, whose acorns were our food, before 
That Ceres' seed of mortal man was known_, 
Which first Triptoleme taught how to be sown.'' 

In gratitude and commemoration of this gift, the Oak 
was worn in the festivals in honour of Ceres, as also by 
the husbandmen in general, at the commencement of the 
harvest. There is an old Greek proverb, in which a 
man^s age and experience are expressed by saying that 
he had eaten of .Jove's acorns. 



OAK TREE. 



A Roman, who saved the hfe of another, was ciwvned 
with a chaplet of Oak. There is an allusion to this 
custom in Shakespeare's Coriolanus ; Cominius, speaking 
of him, says, 

" At sixteen years^ 

When Tarquin made a head from Rome, he fought 
Beyond the mark of others ; our then dictator, 
^VTiom with all praise I point at, saw him fight, 
"WTien with his Amazonian chin, he drove 
The bristled lips before him : he bestrid 
An o'erpressed Roman, and i' the consul's view 
Slew three opposers : Tarquin's self he met. 
And struck him on his lance : in that day's feats. 
When he might act the woman on the scene. 
He proved best man i' the field, and for his meed 
^V^as brow-bound with the oak." 

Act ii. Scene 2. 

Lucan also refers to it : 

" Straight Lelius from amidst the rest stood forth, 
An old centurion of distinguished worth ; 
The oaken wreath his hardy temples wore, 
Mark of a citizen preserved he bore." 

Rowe's Lucan, book i. 

Boughs of Oak were carried in nuptial ceremonies : 

" With boughs of oak was graced the nuptial train." 

The religious ceremonies of the druids were performed 
under the shade of the Oak, which they venerated ; and 
the cutting of the misletoe was an important ceremony 
with them. They called this plant All-heal, from the 
heahng power it was supposed to possess in their hands. 
They cut it at Christmas, with brazen hatchets : misletoe 
is a parasite of other trees as well as of the Oak ; but it 

u 2 



292 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



was only that which grew on the Oak that was cut by 
the druids, or possessed heahng powers. 

Though tributary to Jupiter, the Oak is itself a sove- 
reign, as may be gathered from undoubted authorities : 

And like the oke, the sovran of the woode 

says Chatterton. He speaks of its majestic appearance ; 
calls it 



The oke^ of lordly look." 



And again, he compares it to a majestic woman : 

Majestic as the grove of okes that stoode 
Before the abbie built by Oswalde^ kinge ; 
Majestic as Hybernie's holy woode. 
Where saintes and soules departed masses synge ; 
Such awe from her sweete looke forthe issuynge 
At once for reveraunce and love did calle." 

Dodsley, in his poem on agriculture, after naming 
many other noble trees, proceeds : 

And last the oak, king of Britannia's woods,^ 
And guardian of her isle." 

Cowper terms it 

" Lord of the woods, the long-surviving oak." 

Spenser gives it very extensive donoinions : 

" The builder oak, the king of forests all." 

And Fairfax even vouches for its coronation : 

" Oak, the king of forests crowned." 

Churchill goes so far as to affirm that, after death, it 
is but translated to another sovereignty : 



OAK TREE. 



The oak, when hving, monarch of the wood. 

The English oak which, dead, commands the flood." 

Montgomery speaks of the longevity of this sturdy 
tree : 

" As some triumphal oak, whose boughs have spread 
Their changing foliage through a thousand years, 
Bows to the rushing wind its glorious head." 

These lines present us with a fine and stately picture 
of the Oak. Mason puts it in a venerable point of 
view : 

" Hie thee, poor pilgrim, to yon neighbouring bower, 
O'er which an old oak spreads his aweful arms, 
Mantled in brownest foliage : and beneath, 
The ivy, gadding from the untwisted stem, 
Curtains each verdant side." 

Elfrida. 

*' ■■ Happy foresters. 

Ye wave your bold heads in the liberal air : 

Ye with your tough and intertwisted roots, 
Grasp the firm rocks ye sprung from, and erect 
In knotty hardihood, still proudly spread 
Your leafy banners 'gainst the tyrannous north." 

Caractacus. 

Metastasio celebrates it for its sturdy defiance of the 
winds : 

* ' Sprezza il furor del vento 
Robusta querela avezza 
Di cento verni e cento 
j L'injurie a tollerar. 

E se pur cade al suolo, 
Spiega per I'onde il volo, 
E con quel vento istesso 
I Va contrastando in mar," 

j 

1 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



These lines are translated by Montgomery : 

" The tall oak, towering to the skies,, 
The fury of the wind defies. 
From age to age in virtue strong. 
Inured to stand and suffer wrong. 

O'erwhelmed at length upon the plain. 
It puts forth wings, and sweeps the main ; 
The self-same foe undaunted braves. 
And fights the wind upon the waves." 

Wordsworth speaks of the Oak's fine broad shade : 

" Beneath that large old oak, which near their door 
Stood, and, from its enormous breadth of shade. 
Chosen for the shearer's covert from the sun. 
Thence, in our rustic dialect was called 
The Clipping- tree; a name which yet it bears.'"' 

Tlie poet adds a note to explain that clipping is a word 
used in the north of England for shearing. 

Spenser compares a grey-headed old man to an old 
Oak tree covered with frost : 

" There they do find that godly aged sire. 
With snowy locks adown his shoulders shed. 
As hoary frost with spangles doth attire 
The mossy branches of an oak half dead." 

Age, borne up by mental strength to a stout defiance 
of misfortune or danger, has frequently afforded a simile 
with the oak tree past its prime : 

" Silent and tall he seemed as an oak on the banks of Lugar, 
which had its branches blasted of old by the lightning of heaven. 
It bends over the stream ; the grey moss whistles in the wind. So 
stood the king." 

Ossian's FingaL 



OAK TREE. 



295 



Chatterton repeatedly compares the death of a warrior, 
in battle, to the fall of an oak : 

" In his dere hartes bloude his longe launce was wett^ 
And from his courser down he tumbled dede. 
So have I sene a mountayne oak that longe 
Has caste his shadowe to the mountayne syde. 
Brave all the vvyndes^, tho' ever they so stronge, 
And view the briers below with self-taught pride ; 

But when throwne downe by mightie thunder-stroke, 

He'd rather bee a brier than an oke." 

Cowley compares the death of the gigantic Philistine 
slain by David to a tree destroyed by thunder : 

*' Down, down, he falls, and bites in vain the ground ; 
Blood, brain, and soul crowd mingled through the wound ! 
So a strong oak which many years had stood 
With fair and flourishing boughs, itself a wood — 
Though it migtit long the axe's violence bear. 
And played with winds that other trees would tear- 
Yet by the thunder's stroke from the root is rent : 
So sure the blows that from high heaven are sent." 

The Oak is not so much used for ship-building as it 
was formerly ; it was, in a great measure, superseded by 
the fir ; and latterly larch- wood has been much in use 
for this purpose. It has also fallen comparatively into 
disuse for the building of houses and churches ; in some 
old buildings where it yet remains, it has a handsome 
and venerable appearance. It is styled, both by Chaucer 
and Spenser, " the builder Oak but the epithet now 
may be as properly applied to many other trees. The 
Oak, however, has furnished many superb vessels, and 
the sailor will still maintain that his ship is " heart of 
Oak.'' 

Pope thus addresses the Thames : 



296 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



" ThoUj too^ great father of the British flood s^, 
With joyful pride survey'st our lofty woods. 
Where towering oaks their growing honours rear. 
And future navies on thy shores appear." 

Again, he says — 

" Let India boast her plants, nor envy we 
The weeping amber, and the balmy tree. 
While by our oaks the precious loads are borne. 
And realms commanded which those trees adorn." 

Windsor Forest. 

This king of trees has been described by some of our 
finest poets : 

" And to a pleasant grove I gan passe. 
Long er the bright sunne uprisen was : 

In which were okes great, streight as a line. 
Under the which the grasse so freshe of hew. 
Was newly sprong, and an eight foot or nine 
Every tree well fro his fellow grew. 
With branches brode, laden with leves new. 
That sprongen out agen the sunne-shene. 
Some very red, and some a glad light green." 

Chaucer. 

Shakespeare, who ever says a great deal in a few words, 
has told us how the melancholy Jacques lay along — 

Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out 
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood." 

In a future scene he sends Oliver to give us the re- 
mainder of the tree : 

" And, mark what object did present itself ! 

Under an oak, whose boughs were mossed with age. 
And high top bald with dry antiquity. 



OAK TEEE. 



A wretched ragged man, overgrown with hair^ 
Lay sleeping on his back." 

'Twere strange indeed, had Spenser neglected such 
ee : 

" There grew an aged tree on the green, 
A goodly oak sometime had it been. 
With arms full strong, and largely displayed. 
But of their leaves they were disarrayed : 
The body big, and mightily pight 
Throughly rooted, and of wondrous height : 
Whylom had been the king of the field. 
And mochel mast to the husband did yield. 
And with his nuts larded many swine. 
But now the gray moss marred his rine ; 
His bared boughs were beaten with storms, 
His top was bald, and wasted with worms. 
His honor decayed, his braunches sere ; 
****** 
* ' * * * * * 

For it had been an antient tree. 
Sacred with many a mystery." 

Shepherd's Calendar, February. 

Lucan compares Cato in age to a withered Oak : 

Careless of future ills that might betide. 
No aid he sought to prop his failing side. 
But on his former fortune much relied. 
Still seemed he to possess and fill his place ; 
But stood the shadow of what once he was. 
So, in the field with Ceres' bounty spread, 
Uprears some ancient oak his reverend head ; 
Chaplets, and sacred gifts his boughs adorn. 
And spoils of war by mighty heroes worn. 
But the first vigor of his root now gone. 
He stands dependent on his weight alone; 
All bare his naked branches are displayed. 
And with his leafless trunk he forms no >ihade : 



S98 



SYLTAX SKI^TCHES. 



Yet though the winds his ruin daily threat^ 
As every blast would heave him from his seat ; 
Though thousand fairer trees the field supplies. 
That rich in youthful verdure round him rise^, 
Fixed in his ancient seat;, he yields to none, 
And wears the honoui's of the grove alone." 

Rowe's Lucanj book i. 

Cowper's poem of Yardley Oak is too long to insert 
altogether, yet it will scarcely bear curtailment. 

" Survivor sole^, and hardly such^, of all 

That once lived here^ my brethren, at my birth, 
(Since which I number threescore winters past^) 
A shattered veteran, hoUow-trunked, perhaps, 
As now, and with excoriate forks deform, 
Relic of ages ! could a mind imbued 
With truth from Heaven, created thing adore, 
1 might with reverence kneel, and worship thee. 

* * « * «- 

Thou wert a bauble once, a cup and ball, 
\Yhich babes might play ^vith ; and the thievish jay. 
Seeking her food, with ease miglit have purloined 
The auburn nut that held thee, swallowing down 
Thy yet close-folded latitude of boughs. 
And all thine embryo vastness, at a gulp. 
But fate thy growth decreed, autumnal rains 
Beneath thy parent tree mellowed the soil. 

Designed thy cradle. 

* « » « 

' two lobes, protruding, paired exact ; 

A leaf succeeded, and another leaf. 
And, all the elements thy puny growth 
Fostering propitious, thou becam'st a twig. 

* * * * * 

Time made thee what thou wast, king of the woods ; 
And Time hath made thee what thou art,— a cave 
For owls to roost in. Once thy spreading boughs 
O'erhung the champaign ; and the numerous flocks 



OAK TKEE, 



299 



That grazed it^ stood beneath that ample eope 
Uncrowded^ yet safe sheltered ftom the storm. 
***** 

^VTiile thus through all the stages thou hast pushed 
Of treeship— first a seedlings hid in grass ; 
Then twig ; then sapling, and as century rolled 
Slow after century, a giant bulk 
Of girth enoi-mous, with moss-cushioned root 
Upheaved above the soil, and sides embossed 
"With prominent wens globose— till at the last 
The rottenness, which time is charged to inflict 
On other mighty ones, found also thee. 
* « « * 

Embowelled now, and of thy ancient self 
Possessing nought but the scooped rind, that seems 
An huge throat calling to the clouds for di-ink, 
AVhich it would give in rivulets to thy root. 
Thou temptest none, but rather much forbid'st 
The feller's toil, which thou could'st ill requite. 
Yet is thy root sincere, sound as the rock, 
A quarry of stout spurs, and knotted fangs, 
^\Tiich, crooked into a thousand whimsies, clasp 
The stubborn soil, and hold thee still erect. 

Thine arms have left thee. Winds have rent them off 
Long since ; and rovers of the forest wild 
With bow and shaft, have burnt them. Some have left 
A splintered stump, bleached to a snowy white ; 
And some memorial none where once they grew. 
Yet life still lingers in thee, and puts forth 
Proof not contemptible of what she can. 
Even where death predominates. The spring 
Finds thee not less ahve to her sweet force. 
Than yonder upstarts of the neighbouring vvood^ 
So much thy juniors, who their birth received 
Half a millenium since the date of thine." 



300 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



The Cork-tree, commonly so called, is the cork- 
barked Oak, Que?rus suber. Evelyn tells us it is -called 
by the Germans Pantoffel-holtz, which signifies slipper- 
wood, because they are in the habit of using the bark 
for the soles of their shoes ; that it was first apphed to 
that purpose by the Grecian ladies, whence they were 
called light-footed: "from them," continues he, "it is 
likely the Venetian dames took it up for their monstrous 
chappines; affecting or usurping an artificial eminency 
above men which nature had denied them.'"' The poor 
people in Spain lay broad planks of it by their bedside to 
tread on, as great persons use Turkey and Persian carpets, 
to defend them from the floor ; and frequently hne the 
walls and inside of their houses built of stone with this 
bark, which renders them very warm, and corrects the 
moisture of the air. 

The Cork-bark, under the simple name of cork, is 
known to every one ; and it is a very useful substance, 
as will be admitted even by the little school-boy, who 
first ventures into the water under its protection, as well 
as his father, who enjoys his bottle of port after the 
fatigues of business ; or his mother, who, by the adoption 
of the German fashion, ventures out to market in rainy 
weather, without fear of wetting her feet. These are 
among its commonest uses, but they are much more 
extensive : it is valuable to the collector of insects ; and 
in many places is employed in the construction of bee- 
hives. It is true there are some other trees which have 
a fungous bark that will answer some of the purposes of 
cork, but none is so good in quality or so plentiful in 
quantity as that of the Cork-barked Oak. The tree is 



OAK TREE. 



SOI 



barked every nine or ten years ; it has an inner bark, 
which protects it from the cold ; and the removal of the 
cork or exterior bark is so far from injuring, that it 
appears to be necessary to the strength and health of the 
tree. Trees not barked seldom continue in health 
longer than sixty years ; whereas those which are regu- 
larly barked will retain their vigour for an hundred and 
fifty years, or more. The best cork is from the oldest 
trees ; that of very young trees is porous, and of little 
value ; it is however necessary to bark trees of twelve or 
fifteen years, for the improvement of their bark ; this is 
repeated eight or ten years after; and after these two 
first peehngs, the bark obtained from the tree is in 
perfection. It is taken off in the month of July. 
The acorn of this tree is very like that of the Common 
Oak. 

The Cork-tree is a native of the south of Europe, 
Barbary, &c. The leaves are not sinuate like those of 
the Common Oak ; they are about two inches long, and 
one inch and a quarter wide, with a little down on the 
under side. 

" The cork-trees hoar that clothe the shaggy steep." 

Byuon. 

There are several varieties, of which some shed their 
leaves in autumn, but the most common are those which 
are called evergreen : they do not shed them till May, 
just before the new leaves shoot ; but at that time the 
trees are for a short time nearly bare. 

Southey describes the appearance of Cork-trees in the 
gleam of a traveller's fire : 



502 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



* Bright rose the flame replenished ; it illumed 
The cork-tree's furrowed rind, its rifts and swells, 
And redder scars,— and where its aged boughs 
O'erbowered the travellers, cast upon the leaves 
A floating, grey, unrealising gleam." 

RODEBICK. 



PHILLYREA. 



OLEINEiE. DIANDRIA JfONOGYNIA. 

From Phyllyra, the mother of Chiron: from whom Ovid calls 
him Phyllyrius. — French, filaria ; Italian, lillatro. 

There are several species of Phillyrea; natives of 
the south of Europe ; they are evergreen shrubs, and 
are frequently confounded with the alaternus, a shrub 
belonging to a different family. They may be readily 
distinguished by the situation of the leaves, which are 
alternate in that plant, and opposite in the Phillyrea. 

It is chiefly the Broad-leaved, Phillyrea latjfoUa, 
which is confused with the alaternus; and as manv 
gardeners call the latter shrub by the name of Phillyrea, 
for the sake of distinction the former is styled the True 
Phillyrea. It is a hardy shrub ; Evelyn says as hardy 
as the holly itself. It will sometimes grow as high as 
twenty feet. 

The name of this shrub seems to have been a fa- 
vourite with gardeners and botanists. It has been ob- 
served that some insist on bestowing it upon the alater- 
nus ; it also extends to a species of the cassine. Cow- 
ley speaks of the evergreen privet by the same title; 
and Philyra was formerly the appellation of the lime- 
tree. 



PINE TREE. 



PINUS. 

€ONIFER^o MONCECIA MONADELPHIA, 

French J pin ; Italian, pino. 

The Wild Pine Tree, Pinus sylvestris, is commonly 
called the Scotch Pine, or Scotch Fir, from its plentiful 
growth in the mountains of Scotland ; but it is common 
in most parts of Europe, particularly the northern parts. 
The leaves are of a grayish colour, and twisted : the 
cones are small and pyramidal. In a favourable soil 
this tree will grow eighty feet high, with a straight 
trunk : its timber varies in colour, and according to that 
variation bears the name of white, red, or yellow deal ; 
it is resinous, and durable, and applied to purposes in- 
numerable : the tallest afford masts for our navy. Pitch, 
tar, turpentine, &c. is obtained from most of the trees of 
this genus. 

In many parts of the Highlands the roots are dug up, 
and being divided into small splinters, used instead of 
candles. Evelyn says this is done in New England also, 
and in Virginia, and among the Dutch planters in their 
villages, and that it is there called candlewood. Being 
somewhat offensive by the quantity of smoke which issues 
from it, they commonly burn it in the chimney-corner, 
upon a flat stone or iron ; except upon occasions when 
they want to carry it from one place to another, when 
they carry a single stick in the hand. 

Hard necessity has taught the Kamschatdales and 
Laplanders to convert the bark of these trees into bread : 



PINE TREE. 



305 



to effect this, they carefully strip off the outer bark from 
the finest trees in the spring, and collect the soft white 
interior bark, which they dry in the shade. When they 
are ready to use it, they first toast it at the fire, then 
grind it, and after steeping the flour in warm water to 
take off the resinous taste, they make it into thin cakes 
and bake them. Linnasus says that the Swedish boys 
will often peel off this inner bark, and eat it raw, with a 
greedy appetite ; and that the bark cakes fatten swine. 
These hard-faring peasants of the north are often re- 
duced to such food, and use the bark of the birch tree 
for the same purpose. 

Lightfoot says that the farina of the flowers is some- 
times carried away in such quantities by the winds in the 
spring, as to alarm the ignorant and superstitious pea- 
sants in Scotland with the notion of its raining brim- 
stone. 

The Mountain Pine is a variety of this : it is a native 
of the Swiss mountains, where it is called the Torch 
Pine. It is very full of resin : the wood is of a reddish 
colour when fresh cut. 

Churchill, in reference to the growth of the Scotch fir, 
in various soils and situations, says — 

" the pine of mountain race. 

The fir, the Scotch fir, never out of place." 

The Pineaster, or Cluster Pine, Pinus pinaster^ grows 
very large, and extends its branches to a considerable 
distance : the young trees are well clothed, but as they 
advance in age, the branches have a naked appearance, 
the leaves are much larger and longer than those of the 
Scotch Pine, and of a darker green ; the cones also are 
larger. It grows on the mountains of Italy and the 

X 



306 



SYLViVN SKETCHES. 



south of France. In Switzerland it is frequently cut 
into shingles for the roofs of houses; in the south of 
France, the young trees are cut for stakes to support 
vines. 

The Weymouth Pine, Pinus strobus, called in North 
America, its native country, the White Pine tree, is one 
of the tallest species, often attaining the height of an 
hundred feet in its native soil. The bark, especially 
when young, is very smooth and dehcate ; the leaves are 
long and slender, and close set ; the cones long, slender, 
and very loose, so that if the seeds be not gathered in 
winter, they open and let them out vrith the fu'st wai'mth 
of spring. The wood is esteemed for masts of ships : and 
in the reign of Queen Anne laws were passed for the pre- 
servation of these trees, and to encourage their cultivation 
in America. It is called the Weymouth Pine, and was 
formerly called Lord Weymouth's Pine, from the first 
trees of this species in England having been planted in 
the grounds of Lord Weymouth. It w^as once called 
the New England Pine. 

The Stone Pine, Pinus pine a ^ not being so resinous 
as most of the other species, is but little cultivated for 
timber : this Pme will grow to a considerable height 
with a straight stem, and a rough bark ; it makes a 
variety among others of the genus, from the difference of 
the foHage, both in colour and in its arrangement on the 
branches. The cones are very large, and make a hand- 
some appearance ; and upon close observ-ation, the beau- 
tiful arrangement of the scales will be found truly ad- 
mirable. It is chiefly cultivated for its beauty, and for 
the kernels of the cones, which, though shghtly flavoured 
with tui-pentine, are as sweet as almonds. In Italy and 
the south of France they are ft-equently served up in 



PINE TREE. 



SOT 



desserts in the winter season. Sir George Staunton says, 
too, that they are much rehshed by the Chinese. They 
were formerly used here as a medicine, but have been 
superseded by the ahnond, of which alone emulsions are 
now made. 

This Pine is a native of the south of Europe ; very 
common in Italy, especially about Ravenna. 

The beautiful grove of Pines on Hampstead Heath is 
said to have been raised from seeds of this species, brought 
from Ravenna ; but if that be the case, the cones vary 
considerably, from the diiFerence of soil or chmate ; they 
bear no comparison with the cones growing in Italy. 
The following is a beautiful description of the Ravenna 
Pine: 

Various the trees and passing foliage there, — 

Wild pear^ and oak, and dusky juniper, 

With briony between in trails of white. 

And ivy, and the suckle's streaky light. 

And moss warm gleaming with a sudden mark. 

Like flings of sunshine left upon the bark. 

And still the pine long-haired, and dark, and tall. 

In lordly right, predominant o'er all. 

Much they admire that old religious tree 
With shaft above the rest up-shooting free. 
And shaking, when its dark locks feel the wind, 
Its wealthy fruit with rough Mosaic rind." 

Leigh Hunt. 

The Siberian Stone Pine, Pinus cemhra, is lofty and 
straight ; the leaves are very like those of the Pinus 
pinea, but the cones are longer, and their scales looser. 
It grows higher up the Alps than any other Pine, even 
higher than the larch will grow. The timber of this tree 

X 2 



308 



SYLVAN SKETCHES, 



is soft, and reckoned very fit for the carver. The pea- 
sants of the Tyrol, where it abounds, make of it curious 
carved Avorks, which they dispose of among the common 
people in Switzerland, who are fond of the resinous smell 
which exhales from the wood. This Pine is a native of 
Switzerland and Siberia. 

Some botanists make a distinction between the Siberian 
Stone Pine and the Swiss, saying that the latter is of 
lower growth, and not so straight, and that the cones are 
different. The kernels are good to eat, and sometimes 
form a part of a Swiss dessert ; they yield an abundance 
of oil. The wood is finer grained than deal, more beau- 
tifully variegated, and has a pleasing scent. A white 
odoriferous resin is extracted from it. 

Some persons call the Pimis cembra the Evergreen 
Larch. Harte speaks of the fragrance of this tree; and 
Mr. Chalmers, in a note upon the passage, says this 
beautiful tree grows on the Spanish Appennines : 

" The cembraii pine trees form an awful shade. 
And their rich balm perfumes the neighbouring glade." 

Schmidtmeyer, in his travels into Chih, speaks of a 
Pine which he met with in the woods of Brazil, the 
Araucana Pine, of which he says that the cones are as 
large as a small human head, that the seeds contained in 
them are like elongated chestnuts, and are sold in the 
market-places of Rio de J aneiro. He describes the tree 
as resembling in some degree the silver fir, in its general 
appearance at some distance ; but it must have a dif- 
ferent character when near, for, he says, the leaves are 
more than half an inch broad, and about an inch and a 
half long, drawn or curled in, and prickly. " The 
earliest travellers in Paraguay,"" proceeds he, and in 



PINE TREE. 



309 



the south of Brazil, describe this tree as growing there 
to a considerable height and size, affording food to the 
Indians with its fruits : they call it the Stone Pine, 
probably from the tree of that name which grows in the 
south of Spain, and bears nuts also, but different in 
quahty and size*." 

Dr. Hunter quotes a passage from Martial, in which 
he represents it as dangerous to stand under the Stone 
Pine, on account of the magnitude of its cones : 

" Poma sumus Cybeles ; procul hinc discede, viator, 
Ne cadat in misenim nostra ruina caput t." 

" High and mighty fruit are we. 
Apples of great Cybele. 
Speed thee, traveller, or thy crown 
Brings the pelting ruin down." 

The Pine was sacred to Cybele, who turned Atys into 
that tree : 

Et succincta comas, hirsutaque vertice pinus ; 
Grata Deum matri ; siquidem Cybeleius Attis 
Exuit hac hominem, truncoque induruit illo." 

Ovid, Met. lib. x. 

And that rough tree whose branching foliage nods. 
Loved by the mighty Mother of the gods. 
Since youthful Attis, to her fondness blind, 
Slept in its cone, and hardened in its rind." 

Dr. Orger's Ovid. 

The Pine is an exceedingly hardy tree, growing upon 
cold and mountainous places : " It is pretty," says Pliny, 

* Travels into Chili, over the Andes, p. 52. 
t The word pomum, in the Latin tongue, is applied to the fruit 
of all sorts of trees. In EngHsh, fir cones are still called fir apples' 



310 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



" to consider that those trees that are so much sought 
after for shipping, should most delight in the highest 
mountains, as if they fled from the sea on purpose, and 
were afraid to descend into the water/' Dr. Clarke, 
however, met with pines of a less timid spirit. 

" On all sides of the cataract, close to its fall, and high 
above it, and far below it, and in the midst of the tur- 
bulent flood, tall pines waved their shadowy branches, 
wet with the rising dews. Some of these trees were ac- 
tually thriving upon naked rocks, from which the dashing 
foam of the torrent was spreading in wide sheets of 
spray 

Travellers tell us, that in the large Pine forests in 
Norway, &c. there are frequent flres, which sometimes 
spread far. (See Fir.) Some have supposed these fires 
to have been kindled by lightning, but it is very clearly 
and simply accounted for by the custom the peasants have 
of throwing out among the trees the contents of an old 
pipe, which rekindles in the air, and quickly catches 
these resinous trees. 

" Advancing a mile or two," says Dallaway, " we en- 
tered a grove of Pine and silver fir, and the greater pai't 
having been lately burnt, exhibited a very sombre ap- 
pearance -(-." 

A late poet refers to one of these forest fires : 

" As the Norway woodman quells. 
In the depth of piny dells_, 
One light flame among the brakes. 
While the boundless forest shakes. 



* Clarke's Travels;, vol. iii. p. 181, 
t Dallaway 's Constantinople, p. ISO. 



PINE TKEE. 



And its mighty trunks are torn 
By the fire thus lowly born : 
The spark beneath his feet is dead ; 
He starts to see the flames it fed 
Howling through the darkened sky 
With a myriad tongues victoriously." 

Shelley. 

Some of the Pines have been celebrated for their use 
in ship-building. Lucan says — 

^' From fair Thessalia's Pegasaean shore. 
The first bold pine the daring warriors bore, 
And taught the sons of earth wide ocean to explore." 

Rowe's Lucan, b. ri. 

W. Browne writes — 

" The pine with whom men through the ocean venture." 
Chaucer speaks of 

The sailing firre 

Spenser of 

The sailing pine 
And a httie farther on, says — 

The firr that weepeth still." 

It is curious that in Harte's translation of Statius this 
distinction is just reversed : 

" The advent'rous fir that sails the vast profound. 
And pine, fresh bleeding from the odorous wound." 

The Scotch Pine, which is most in use for shipping, is 
as frequently called the Scotch Fir, and all the trees of 
this genus are, more or less, kchrym_ose. Other firs, 



312 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



however, are used in ship-building ; indeed most of the 
trees of this genus. 

Samiazaro speaks of " il diritissimo Abete, nato a 
sostenere pericoh del mare:" — the straight fir tree, formed 
to sustain the dangers of the sea. 

The Pine is particularly noted for its height and 
straightness. The Faithful Shepherdess, in lamenting 
the death of her lover, says — 

" My meat shall be what these wild woods afford, 
BemeS;, and chestnuts, plantains, on whose cheeks 
The sun sits smiling, and the lofty fruit 
Pulled from the fair head of the straight-grown pine." 

Again, Perigort says to Amoret — ■ 
Oh, you are fairer far 

Than the chaste blushing morn, or that fair star 
That guides the wandering seaman o'er the deep, 
Straighter than straightest pine upon the steep 
Head of an aged mountain." 

* * * * 

Here also grew the rougher-rinded pine. 
The great Angoan ships' brave ornament. 
Whom golden fleece did make an heavenly sign ; 
Which coveting, with his high top's extent. 
To make the mountains touch the stars divine. 
Decks all the forest with embellishment." 

Spexsee, Virgil's Gnat. 

Nod the cloud-piercing pines their troubled heads." 

Wordsworth's Sketches in the Alps. 

On thy white altar we 
Lavish in fond idolatry. 

Herbs and rich flowers such as the summer uses : 

Some that in wheaten fields 

Lift their red bells amidst tht golden grain : 



PINE TREE. 



313 



Some that the moist earth yields^, 

Beneath the shadows of those pine trees high, 

WTiichj branching, shield the far Thessalian plains 

From the fierce anger of Apollo's eye ; 

And some that Delphic swains 

Pluck by the silver springs of Castaly." 

B. Cornwall's Worship of Dian. 

These straight dark pines have a grand and imposing 
appearance in the mountainous situations to which they 
naturally belong. This is frequently noticed by tra- 
vellers : 

" Tall straight Pines, in rising order, lined the rugged 
sides, and by their darkening gloom heightened the 
grandeur of the scene*." 

-* * * * ^ic * * 

On looking down, the landscape below was a perfect 
miniature, to such a height had we attained : the tall 
pines rising one above another in wild succession under 
our feet, presented the appearance of a dark-green sea, 
by the waving of their pliant tops, strongly agitated by 
the blast that blew around us-j-." 

IMr. Drummond, in his First Steps to Botany, observes, 
that what is called the needle-leaf of the Pines is neces- 
sary to them on account of the northern or Alpine regions 
they inhabit ; for that with any other they could not 
have been evergreens, " for in winter they would be 
overpowered with a weight of sno\v, and blown down by 
the hurricanes. The acerose leaf enables them to evade 
both ; the snow falls through, and the wind penetrates 
the interstices. The winds struggling through the boughs 

* Brooke's Travels in Norway, &c. p. 112. 
t Ibid. p. lU. 



su 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



meet with such innumerable points and edges as, even 
when gentle, to cause a deep murmur or sighing, and 
when the breeze is strong, or the storm is abroad, the 
sounds produced are hke the murmuring of the ocean, or 
the roar of billows among rocks/"* 

The loud wind through the forest Avakes 

With, sound like ocean's roaring, wild and deep. 

And in yon gloomy pines strange music makes. 

Like symphonies unearthly heard in sleep ; 

The sobbing waters dash their waves and weep ; 

Where moans the blast its dreary path along, 

The bending firs a mournful cadence keep. 

And mountain rocks re-echo to the song, 

As fitful raves the wind^ the hills and woods among *." 

This murmuring of the winds in the Pine trees has 
been noticed repeatedly : Lucan compares it to many 
united voices : 

" He said ; the ready legions vow to join 
Their chief beloved, in every bold design ; 
All lift their well-approving heads on high. 
And rend ^vith peals of loud applause the sky. 
Such is the sound when Thracian Boreas spreads 
His weighty wing o'er Ossa's piny heads : 
At once the noisy groves are all inclined. 
And bending roar beneath the sweeping wand : 
At once their rattling branches all they rear. 
And drive the leafy clamour through the air. 

Rovv'e's Lucan, book i. 

Wordsworth describes them as influenced by gentler 
winds : 

" An idle voice the sabbath region fills 
Of Deep that calls to Deep across the hills, 



* Drummond's First .'^tep to Botany, p. 123. 



PINE TREE. 



315 



Broke only by the melaiicholy sound 

Of drowsy bells for ever tinkling round ; 

Faint wail of eagle melting into blue 

Beneath the cliffs^ and pine-woods' steady sugh*." 

Barry Cornwall makes frequent allusions to this 
poetical language of the woods : 

" And when the tempest of Xovember blew 
The winter trumpet, till its faihng breath 
Went moaning into silence^ every green 
And loose leaf of the piny boughs did tell 
Some trembhng story of that mountain dell." 

Sicilian Story. 

Speaking of Pol\-pheme. he says — 

" mighty tears then filled 

His soHtary eye, and with such noise 
As the rough winds of autumn make, when they 
Pass o'er a forest, and bend down the pines, 
The giant sighed." 

Death of Acis. 

There dark trees 

Funereal, (cypress, yew, and shadovry pine. 
And spicy cedar), clustered, and at night 
Shook from their melancholy branches sounds 
And sighs like death." 

And a little farther on — 

and when the rising moon 

Flames down the avenue of pines, and looks 
Red and dilated through the evening mists. 
And chequered as the heavy branches sway 



* The reader will most probably remember that this word, sugh, 
so expressive of this whispering of leaves in the Avind, is y. Scotch 
word. 



316 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



To and fro with the wind, I stay to listen, 

And fancy to myself that a sad voice. 

Praying, comes moaning through the leaves, as 'twere 

For some misdeed." 

Marcelia. 

This music is celebrated by Moschus in a beautiful 
little piece translated by L. Hunt : 

" But when the deeps are moved, and the waves come 
Shuddering along, and tumbling into foam, 
I turn to earth, which trusty seems, and staid. 
And love to get into a greenwood shade ; 
In which the pines, although the winds be strong. 
Can turn the bluster to a sylvan song 

Mr. Hunt praises the voice of the Pine in an original 

poem also : 

And then there fled by me a rush of air 

That stirred up all the other foliage there, 

Filling the soHtude with panting tongues ; 

At which the pines woke up into their songs. 

Shaking their choral locks ; and on the place 

There fell a shade as on an awe-struck face ; 

And overhead, like a portentous rim 

Pulled over the wide world, to make all dim, 

A grave gigantic cloud came hugely uplifting him." 

Nymphs t." 

Ovid represents the Cyclops, v»'lio lived on the coast of 
Sicily as carrying a lofty Pine-tree by way of walking- 
stick; and tells us that Ceres bore a flaming pine, 
plucked from Mount Etna, in each hand, to assist her 

* Hunt's Foliage — Evergreens, p. 76. 
•t Ibid. p. 24. 



PINE TREE. 



31 T 



during the night in the search of her daughter Proser- 
pine. 

Ovid speaks of the Pine by the name of Teda. Bry- 
done obsei-^es, that Teda is still the name of a tree 
growing on ]Mount Etna, wliich produces a great quan- 
tity of resin, and was surely the most proper tree that 
Ceres could have chosen for her pui'pose *. From the 
use of the Pine for torchwood, Teda has also been used 
to signify a torch, and has extended to our own lan- 
guage : 

" At which a bushy teade a grcom did light, 
And sacred lamp in secret chamber hide^, 
TVTiere it should not be quenched day nor night 
For fear of e^-il Fates, but burnen ever bright." 

Spen'Ser. 

Homer thus describes the part of the Sicilian coast 
where the Cyclops dwelt : 

" "Vyhen to the nearest verge of land we drew-, 
Fast by the sea a lonely cave we view^ 
High, and with darkening laurels covered o'er ; 
Where sheep and goats lay slumbering round the shore, 
Near this a fence of marble from the rock. 
Brown with o'erarching pine, and spreading oak. 
A giant shepherd here his flock maintains 
Far from the rest, and solitary reigns, 
In shelter thick of horrid shade reclined ; 
And gloomy mischiefs labour in his mind." 

Pope's Homer's Odyssey, Book ix. 

Sir Philip Sidney gives an inviting description of a 
wood of Pines : 

" They hghted downe in a faire thicke wood, which 
did entice them ^xith. the pleasantnesse of it to take their 

* Brydone's Tour through Sicily and Malta, Letter XL p. 164. 



518 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



rest there. It was all of Pine-trees, whose broad heads 
meeting together, yeelded a perfecte shade to the grounde 
where their bodies gave a spacious and pleasant room to 
walke in : they were set in so perfect an order, that every 
way the eye being full, yet no ways stopped. And even 
in the middest of them, were many svv^eet springs, which 
did loose themselves upon the face of the earth. Here 
Musidorus drew out such provisions of fruits and other 
cates, as hee had brought for that daies repaste, and 
laide it downe upon the faire carpet of the greene grasse. 
But Pamela had much more pleasure to walke under 
those trees, making in their barkes pretty knots, that 
tyed together the names of Musidorus and Pamela, 
sometimes intermixedly changing them to Pammidorus 
and Musimela, with twenty other flowers of her travel- 
ling fancies, which had bound themselves to a greater 
restraint than they coulde, without much paine, well en- 
dure ; and to one tree, more beholding to her than the 
rest, she entrusted the treasure of her thoughts in these 
verses 

As the verses of Sir Philip Sidney are generally the 
least poetical part of his writings, the reader will not 
perhaps be anxious to be entrusted with the treasure ; 
let the pine therefore retain its charge. The brilliancy 
of water seen through the dark shafts of Pine-trees, is 
beautifully represented in these few lines : 

And midst the flowers, turfed round beneath a shade 
Of circling pines^, a babbling fountain played. 
And 'twixt their shafts you saw the water bright, 
Which through the darksome tops glimmered with showering 
light." 

Leigh HuNxf. 



* Sidney's Arcadia. 



t Story of Rimini, Canto iii. 



PINE THEE. 



Sannazaro speaks of " Pini si grandi, e si spatiosi, 
che ogn 'un per se havrebbe quasi bastato ad ombrare 
un selva." Pines so large and spreading, that any one 
of them might almost have sufficed to shade a wood. 

He says that the shadow of the Pine kills every plant 
that is under it : he alludes perhaps to some particular 
species ; certainly grass will grow luxuriantly under 
Pines. 

A modern writer expresses a similar notion. 

Shepherdess. Help me, drive my sheep 
Under yon lentisk hedge, while you and I 
Beneath these shady pines can take our seat." 

Shepherd. Here is no turf, and all is rough and deep, 
With scattered cones that will not let us lie." 

H. SmitHo 



PISTACIA. 



TEREBINTACE.E. DldCIA PEXTAXDRIA. 

The derivation of this name is not known. 
French, pistachier ; Italian, pistacchio. 

The Pistacia, or Pistacliio-nut tree, called by our old 
writers the Fisticke-nut tree, is a native of the Levant, 
where it grows twenty-five or thirty feet high ; the bark 
of the stem, and of the old branches, is russet-colom-ed, 
but that of the young branches is of a hght brown. 

There are three kinds distinguished as different species, 
which some writers consider only as varieties : the offici- 
nalis^ the narhonensis, and the vera : m the latter, the 
leaves are composed of two or three pau's of leaflets, 
terminated by an odd one ; they are neai'ly egg-shaped, 
and turn back at the edges. The leaves of the P. officbia- 
lis, or Common Pistacia, have generally tlu'ee, but some- 
times four leaflets, of a dark green colour ; the P. Narho- 
ncns'is has three or five roundish leaflets, of a light green. 

In all these, the leaves, when bruised, emit an odour 
like that of the nut itself. 

Although one of these species has been named ^ar- 
bonensis, and Linnscus aflirms that the Common Pistacia 
is a natiA^e of Sicilv, thev are generally supposed to have 
been brought to Europe originally from the East. PHny 
says that the Emperor Vitellius introduced the Pistacia 
into Italy from Spia, when he was legate in that pro- 
vince *. 

* See ]Martyn's Miller. 



PISTACIA. 



3S1 



The Pistacia tree was cultivated in England in 15T0. 
It flowers in April and May. It produces its nuts in 
this country ; but our summers are not warm enough 
to ripen them. In the Levant, the nut ripens in Sep- 
tember. The kernel is of a pale green colour, sweet, 
and not unpleasant to the taste; it is covered with a 
gray, or more commonly a red skin, and enclosed within 
a double shell, of which the outermost is dry, membra- 
neous, and red ; the inner, brittle, smooth, and white. 

These nuts, taken in wine, were supposed in old times 
to be a preservative against the bite of all manner of 
wild beasts. It is probably to this notion Cowley refers 
in the following couplet : 

" The firm pistachio next appeared in view, 
Proud of her fruit, that serpents can subdue." 

Plants, book 5. 

The reader will remember the lamb fed with pistachio 
nuts, which formed a part of the Barmecide's feast. 

An oil is extracted from the nut of the Pistacia vera, 
which, having neither taste nor smell, is used in the East 
as a menstruum for the extraction of the perfume of 
flowers, as jasmines, roses, &c. 

The Pistacia terebinthus, or Common Turpentine 
tree, French, Terebinthe ; Itahan, Terebinto, is a 
native of Barbary and the south of Europe ; it has 
been cultivated here since 1730, and flowers in June 
and July. Cyprus, or Chio turpentine is obtained 
from this tree, by wounding the bark in several places 
in the month of July. A space of about three inches is 
left between the wounds ; from these the turpentine drops 
upon stones placed underneath, upon which it becomes 
so much condensed by the coldness of the night, as to 
admit of being scraped ofl* with a knife, which is always 

y 



322 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



done before sunrise. In order to free it from all ex- 
traneous matter, it is again liquified by the sun's heat, 
and passed through a strainer; it is then fit for use. 
The quantity produced is very small, a large tree yield- 
ing little better than a pound or eighteen ounces. In 
the eastern part of the islands^ the trees aiford some- 
what more, but still so little as to render it very costly, 
and on this account it is generally adulterated. 

Tournefort says, the peasants of Chios gather it from 
the flat stones placed under the trees to receive it, by 
means of little sticks, from which they drop it into bot- 
tles ; and that they sell at thirty or thirty-five parats the 
oque*. 

" The island,'^ he says, " furnishes but three hun- 
dred oques 

The best Chio turpentine is about the consistence of 
thick honey; very tenacious, clear, and almost trans- 
parent. It is of a yellowish white; the smell is fra- 
grant, it is moderately warm to the taste, and entirely 
free from acrimony and bitterness. 

According to Dr. Geddes and other learned writers, 
the turpentine tree is frequently mentioned in the Old 
Testament, where the translators have rendered it in- 
correctly : in some cases it has been made to signify an 
oak I, sometimes a plane §, &c. Dr. Geddes expresses 
a doubt whether the original word ever signifies a plane, 
" whereas,'' continues he, " it certainly signifies a tree 
of some sort or other ; and it is my fixed opinion, that it 

* An oque weighs three pounds and nine ounces, 
t Tournefort's Levant, vol. ii. p. 70. 
X See Genesis, chap. xxxv. 4 ; Joshua, chap. xxiv. 26. 
§ Genesis, chap. xii. 6. 



PISTACIA. 



323 



is that species called terebinthus, which lives to a very 
great age; and seems to have been held in as great vene- 
ration in the East, as the common oak was among the 
Greeks, Romans, Germans, Gauls, and Britons." 

The Pistacia lentiscns, or Common Mastick tree, 
French, Lentisque ; Italian, Sondro, is a native of 
the Levant and the south of Europe : it grows about 
eighteen or twenty feet high ; the trunk is covered with 
a gray bark ; it sends out many branches, of which the 
bark is of a reddish-brown colour ; the leaves are com- 
posed of three or four pairs of small leaflets, of a lucid 
green on their upper, but pale on their under side ; the 
mid-rib, or common foot-stalk, has two narrow borders 
or wings running from one leaflet to another. The fruit 
is small, and black when ripe ; it has a stone in the 
middle, which contains a white kernel ; and from these 
kernels an oil is extracted, fit both for the lamp and the 
table. 

This tree is chiefly valuable for the resinous substance 
obtained from it, called gum mastick. In the isle of 
Chios, the gathering of mastio-k usually begins on the 
first of August. Incisions are made in several parts of 
the bark of the trunk with large knives; the next 
morning the resin is seen to distil from these incisions 
in small tears, which are suffered to fall to the ground, 
and hardening there become grains of mastick ; they are 
about the size of pearl barley, yellow, slightly trans- 
parent, and brittle. The ground is carefully swept under 
the trees ; and this gathering is generally continued till 
the middle of August, provided the weather be dry. 
Towards the end of September, the resin again exudes 
from the same incisions, but in much smaller quantities 
than before. The grains are sifted to separate them 

Y 2 



324 



SYLAWX SKETCHES. 



from all extraneous matter ; and the dust which flies 
from them adheres so strongly to the faces of those who 
work at it, that they are obhged to wash their faces 
with oil. ]\Iastick is consumed chiefly by the ladies of 
the seraglio, who masticate it, not only to sweeten the 
breath, but also to strengthen the gums and to whiten 
the teeth. They put a few grains of it into their per- 
fuming pans, and into the bread before it goes into the 
oven. 

The Grand Seignior has a claim upon all the mastick 
trees cultivated by his subjects ; and the trees cannot be 
sold but upon condition that the same portion shall be 
paid by the purchaser as was paid by the former owner. 
Sometimes an aga is sent from Constantinople to receive 
the mastick due to the Grand Seignior ; sometimes this 
is done bv the ofiicers of the custom-house of Cliios. 
An officer goes into three or four of the principal villages, 
and gives notice to the inhabitants to bring in their re- 
spective portions. All the villages together pay t^vo 
hundred and eighty-six chests of mastick, weighing each 
a hundred and twenty-five oques. The cadi of Chios 
receives three chests, each w^eighing eighty oques : a 
chest goes to the clerk of the villages, who keeps the 
registers of the persons who pay the mastick; and the 
custom-house officer who v/eighs it takes a handful from 
each chest, for his omi portion. 

If any one is surprised carrying mastick to the citv, 
or to those villages where it is not cultivated, he is con- 
demned to the galleys, and his goods are confiscated. 
The peasants who do not gather mastick enough to pay 
the required portion, buy or borrow it of then- neigh- 
bours ; and those who have more than enough, either 
sell it secretly, or save it for the following year. Some- 



PISTACIA. 



325 



times they agree with the custom-house officer, who con- 
sents to take it of them at a certain price, and sells it 
again, with a profit of a hundred, or a hundj'ed and 
fifty per cent. 

The Greeks w ho cultivate mastick pay but half of the 
capitation, or poll-tax, and wear a v/hite linen band round 
their turbans, like the Turks. 

In former times, mastick was supposed to be a remedy 
for a variety of diseases and accidents both real and ima- 
ginary. Among other uses, it was considered as power- 
fully exciting the appetite. Infused in rose-water, Ge- 
rarde tells us it is excellent to wash the mouth with to 
fasten loose teeth, " and to comfort the jaws."" He tells 
us, too, that, spread upon a piece of leather or velvet, and 
laid on the temples as a plaster, it relieves pains of the 
jaws and teeth. At present it is scarce ever used as a medi- 
cine, but enters as an ingredient into many kinds of varnish. 
It is also used by the apothecaries and druggists, when 
dissolved in spirit of w ine, to give a milky appearance to 
spirit of sal animoniac, aqua ammoniw puree, previously 
scented with different oils, as those of lavender, rosemary, 
or amber, to which is sometimes added musk. This 
compound is sold by the French name of eau de luce, 
as an agreeable perfume ; but the original eau de luce 
veritable is scented with the unrectified fetid oil of amber 
only, and has of course a disagreeable odour, being in- 
tended as a medicine in hysteric fits. Some use Chio 
turpentine instead of mastick to give this milky appear- 
ance. 

The wood of this tree yields an aromatic smell in 
burning. Evelyn recommends it as making " the best 
tooth-pickers in the world and Dr. Hunter quotes an 
epigram from Martial, giving it the same character : 



326 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



" Lentiscum melius : sed si tibi frondea cuspis 
Defueritj dentes penna levare potest. 

L. xiv. Ep. 22. 

Lentisk is best^ but if you've none_, why then 
E'en take a pen." 

An excrescence is found among the leaves of the tur- 
pentine and mastick trees, which is produced by the 
puncture of an insect, and when opened is found full 
of little worms. 

The Lentiscus is considered a beautiful evergreen, but 
it is rather tender. In this climate, the Pistacia nut and 
the turpentine trees both requu'e a warm situation : they 
are generally planted against a warm wall, where our 
common winters w4il not injure them. In very severe 
winters, they have some little protection, but the Len- 
tiscus requires some shelter in seasons less severe. It was 
cultivated in this country in 1664. It blossoms in ]Mav. 

There is, in Barbaiy, another species of Pistacia which 
yields mastick, though of an inferior kind, Pistacia Atlan- 
tica. It is not, however, readily distinguished from the 
oriental mastick, and both bear the same name among 
the Moors, HeuJc. The Arabs collect this gum, and 
make the same use of it as of the mastick from Chios. 
The fruit of this tree is eaten by the Moors, who some- 
times bruise it and mix it with their dates. 



PLANE TREE. 



PLATANUS. 

AZ'IESTACEJE. MONOiCIA POLYANDKIA. 

Platanus is supposed to be derived from a Greek word signifying 
wide ; in reference either to the broad leaves, or spreading branches 
of the tree. French, platane ; Italian, platano. 

The Eastern Plane-tree, Platanus Orientalis, is a na- 
tive of Asia, where it grows very large : the stem is tall, 
erect, and covered with a smooth bark, which annually 
falls off in scales. The leaves are alternate, about seven 
inches long, and eight broad, deeply cut into five seg- 
ments, and the two outer ones again slightly cut in the 
middle : the segments have many acute indentures on 
their borders, and have each a strong midrib, with many 
lateral veins. The upper side of the leaf is a deep green, 
the under side paler : the flowers are so small as scarcely 
to be distinguished one from the other witliout glasses ; 
they grow upon long-foot stalks, hanging downwards, in 
balls, four or five together ; some of the larger balls are 
four inches in circumference. They blow late in May, 
or early in June, a little before the leaves come out. If 
the seeds ai'e left upon the trees, they will remain till 
spring, when they will fall off, the balls dropping to 
pieces ; and the Avind will often caiTy these seeds (which 
are surrounded with a bristly down) to a great distance. 

The size of the Plane vai'ies much in different coun- 
tries : in Persia there are some of these trees four yards 



328 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



in circumferencQ^, whereas on Mount Caucasus it takes 
the appearance of a large shrub ; as does the American 
Plane in the gardens at St. Petersburgh. 

The Plane is highly esteemed for its beauty and shade. 
It is said to have been brought from Asia first, for the 
purpose of making a monument to Diomedes ; then to have 
passed into Sicily, and from thence spread over Europe. 
It was in great favour with the Romans ; they planted 
it near their houses, and in long avenues to walk in, and 
even nourished it with wine. Pliny remarks that there 
is no tree whatsoever that so well defends us from the 
heat of the sun, or that admits it more kindly in winter; 
for the branches being at a distance proportionable to 
the size of the leaves, when they have fallen, the branches 
easily admit the rays of the sun. This observation, as 
Martyn observes, holds good with all trees ; nevertheless 
«ome trees more clothed than others will better shut 
out the summer sun. Spenser describes a shady grove 

" IVhose lofty trees^ yclad with summer's pride. 
Did spread so broad, they heaven's light did hide, 
Nor perceable with power of any star." 

Whatever Pliny or Spenser may think upon this sub- 
ject, Sannazaro pronounces it a want of courtesy entirely 
to shut out the sun : 

" Ne sono le dette piante si discortesi, che del tutto 
con le loro ombre vietino i raggi del sole entrare nel 
dilettoso boschetto, anzi per diverse parti si gratiosa- 
mente gh ricevono, che rara e quella herbetta, che da 
quelli non prenda grandissima recreatione, e come che 
d'ogni tempo piacevole estanza vi sia, ne la fiorita prima- 
vero piu che in tutto il restante anno piacevolissima vi si 
vitro V a.'" 



PLANE TREE. 



329 



" These plants are not so discourteous as entirely to shut out the 
rays of the sun from this delightful gi'ove^ but in various parts 
graciously received them, so that there was scarcely a spot of grass 
that did not take pleasure in them ; and this retreat is at all times 
beautiful, though more lovely in the flowery spring than in any 
other season." 

Evelyn supposes this tree to have been introduced 
here by Lord Bacon, who had a fine plantation of them 
at Verulam ; but this Mr. Martyn has proved to be a 
mistake, since, according to Turner''s Herbal, it was cul- 
tivated here as early as 1562, but one year after Lord 
Bacon was bom. He allows, however, that the plantations 
at Verulam might be the first of any note or consideration. 

With us it is considered merely as an ornamental tree, 
and as affording an agreeable shade ; but it is recorded 
that the Turks formerly built their ships with, its timber. 
It is rather late in producing its leaves, and too quick 
in parting with them. 

Pausanias mentions a tree of extraordinary size and 
beauty in Arcadia, supposed to have been planted by 
3/Ienelaus. If this were the case, the tree must have 
been thirteen hundred years old ; and it is thought a 
Plane tree of that age could not be in a state of vigour 
and beauty. 

It is said that the Plane was held sacred to Helen, the 
wife of Menelaus. 

Pliny mentions a Plane tree in Lycia, v/hich mouldered 
away into an immense cave, eighty feet round. Licinius 
?vlutianus, governor of that province, with eighteen 
others, dined commodiously on the benches of pumice 
placed round the body of it. He speaks of another that 
belonged to Caligula, growing at his villa, near Velitrs, 
the hollow trunk of which held fifteen persons at dinner, 



330 



SYLVAN SliETCHES. 



with their proper suite of attendants. Evelyn gives a 
curious account of the adoration Xerxes is said to have 
paid to a Plane tree. 

" This beautiful and precious tree, anciently sacred to 
Helena (and with which she crowned the lar and genius 
of the place), was so doted on by Xerxes, that Julian 
and other authors tell us he made halt, and stopped his 
prodigious army of 1,700,000 soldiers, which even co- 
vered the sea, exhausted rivers, and thrust Mount Athos 
from the continent, to admire the pulchritude and pro- 
cerity of one of them ; and became so fond of it, that 
spoiling both himself, his concubines, and great persons 
of all their jewels, he covered it with gold, gems, neck- 
laces, scarfs, bracelets, and infinite riches. In sum, was 
so enamoured of it, that for some days neither the con- 
cernment of his grand expedition, nor interest of honour, 
nor the necessary motion of his portentous army, could 
persuade him from it : he styled it his mistress, his 
minion, his goddess ; and when he was forced to part from 
it, he caused the figure of it to be stamped on a medal 
of gold, which he continually wore about him.^' 

He tells us that the Romans first brought it out of the 
Levant, " and cultivated it with so much care and in- 
dustry for their proud and stately heads, that the great 
orators and statesmen, Cicero and Hortensius, would ex- 
change now and then a turn at the bar, that they might 
have the pleasure to step to their villas, and refresh their 
Platans, which they would often irrigate with wine in- 
stead of water.'' 

In another passage, he says that when this tree was 
removed into France, a tribute was exacted of any person 
who should presume to put his head imder it ; and that 
he had been informed by a worthy knight, that since the 



PLANE TREE. 



331 



number of Planes had been increased about Ispahan, in 
Persia, the plague had not come near the place. 

" In the school of Plato," says Dr. Hunter, " the phi- 
losophers used to walk and converse together under the 
shade of these delightful trees." 

" And broad-leaved plane trees in long colonnades 
O'erarched delightful walks, 
"Where round their trunks the thousand-tendrill'd vine 
Wound up, and hung the boughs \nth greener wreaths, 
And clusters not their own." 

Southey's Thalaba. 

Ovid calls it the genial Plane, " platcmus geraalis.^'* — 
Sannazaro uses a similar epithet : " amenissirno piatano.'''' 

The Greeks seem to have hked it as well as the Ro- 
mans. Moschus says — 

^' I love a sleep under a leafy plane*." 

One of our Enghsh poets gives good reason for such a 
taste : 

" The heavy-headed plane tree, by vv^hose shade 
The grape grows thickest, men are fresher made.'*' 

W. Browne. 

Moore speaks of it by its Persian name of Chenar 
tree : 

" While some, for war's more terrible attacks, 
Wield the huge mace and ponderous battle-axe ; 
And as they wave aloft in morning's beam 
The milk-white plumage of their helms, they seem 



* Hunt's Foliage, Evergreens, p. 78. 



S32 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Like a chenar tree grove, when winter throws 
O'er all its tufted heads his feathering snows *." 

He gives a quotation from Forster, in which that 
author says there are numerous small islands rising from 
the Lake of Cashmere, and that one is called Char 
Chenaur, from the Plane trees upon it. 

" Though sunny the lake of cool Cashmere, 
With its plane tree isle reflected clear 

" The Chenar is a delightful tree ; its bole has a fine 
white and smooth bark ; and its foliage, which grows in 
a tuft at the summit, is of a bright green J." 

The American Plane tree, Platanus Occidentalism is 
called by the English Americans Button-wood, or Water- 
beech : it is remarkable for its quick growth. There are 
such numbers of them in the low meadows between Phi- 
ladelphia and the ferry of Gloucester, that in summer it 
is a shady walk all the way. 

This Plane was introduced here early in the seventeenth 
century. Johnson, in his edition of Gerarde's Herbal, in 
1633, mentions two young ones at that time growing in 
the garden of Mr. Tradescant. It does not bear the 
severer frosts of this country ; in that of 1812 the greater 
number of the Planes in England perished. 

* Veiled Prophet of Khorassan. 
t Moore's Paradise and the Peri. % Morier's Travels. 



POMEGRANATE TREE. 



PUXICA GRANATU.M. 

MYRTE.t. ICOSAXDRIA MOXOGYXIA, 

French, grenadier; Italian, melagrano^ pomogranato. 

The Common Pomegranate tree grows eighteen or 
twenty feet liigh, sending out brandies all the way, 
which also are garnished with many slender twigs, 
makino; it altoo^ether \erv thick and busliv. The leaves 
are about three inches long, and half an inch broad in 
the middle, di'awing to a point at each end ; they are of 
a lucid green, and opposite in pairs. The flowers are of 
the most briUiant scarlet colour, and it is chiefly on their 
account that the tree is cultivated in English nurseries, 
for the fruit seldom combes to perfection in this country. 
The Double-flowered variety is therefore the most de- 
sirable, and this is often covered v»dth its large beautiful 
scarlet blossoms for two or three months. 

It is a native of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Barbary, 
Persia, Japan, China, &c. In the West Indies, where 
it is supposed to have been introduced from Europe, the 
fruit is larger, and better flavoured than elsewhere. 

The Dwarf Pomegranate, Punica nana, is a native of 
the West Indies, and requires a green-house, winter and 
summer, in this country. 

We no sooner cut open a Pomegranate, than we per- 
ceive how descriptively appropriate is the name — Pome- 
granate, seeded fruit ; and so beautiful are these scarlet 



334 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



grains, bathing and sparkKng in their own wine, that it 
seems a pity to destroy so much beauty ; though we do 
not long hesitate, particularly on a summer's day. 

Andrew Marvell, referring the beauties of a garden 
to the benevolent Deity, by whom they were given to 
mankind, says — 

He hangs in shades the orange bright. 
Like golden lamps in a green night ; 
And does in the pomegranate close 
Jewels more rich than Ormus shows." 

Yet Thomson, comparing it with the palm, the cedar, 
and the vine, mentions it with a comparative disrespect : 

^' Give me to drain the cocoa's milky bowl, 
And from the palm to draw its freshening wine. 
More bounteous far than all the frantic juice 
Which Bacchus pours. Nor, on its slender twigs 
Low-bending, be the full pomegranate scorned." 

There may, indeed, be reasons for scorning, or rather 
for shunning tliis fine fruit, when we consider that it is 
one of the fair temptations of the garden of Pluto. The 
reader will remember the disappointment of Ceres, who 
after long search of her lost daughter Proserpine, having 
learned that she had been conveyed by Pluto to the 
shores of Styx, hastens to implore aid of Jove, the father 
of Proserpine, who tells her that 

On one condition she may yet elude 

Her spouse, her lips must ne'er have tasted food; 

So will the fates." 

Ceres flies eagerly to recover her child, when Asca- 
laphus, a mischievous prying Acheronian, betrays the 



POMEGRANATE. 335 

fact that the young beauty, when wandering in Plato's 
garden, plucked 

" A ripe pomegranate, from whose pallid core 
To her red lips seven seeds the damsel bore." 

Proserpine returned the civihties of her babbling foe 
by transforming him to an owl, and poor Ceres was com- 
pelled to accept of Pluto for a son-in-law. 
Harte compares its blossom to the rose : 

" The punic-granate opes its rose-like flowers." 

And Lord Byron promotes it to the rose's dwelling- 
place : 

On her fair cheek's unfading hue 

The young pomegranate's blossoms strew 

Their bloom;, in blushes ever new." 

Rapin compares the interior of the fruit to a honey- 
comb : 

" Succeeding fruits attend the blossom's fall. 
Each represents a crov;n upon a ball ; 
A thousand seeds with Tyrian scarlet dyed. 
And ranged by Nature's art in cells they hide. 
As when industrious bees, with frugal care, 
A waxen kingdom for their stock prepare, 
On twigs first lay foundations for their combs. 
Then mark the shining fabric into rooms : 
For every seed his cell and order holds. 
Whilst a thick rind the juicy fruit enfolds : 
Grateful to taste, their mingled flavours meet. 
Nor rudely sharp nor yet too luscious sweet." 

Rapin proceeds to tell a story of the origin of this 
fruit, which was formerly, he says, an ambitious beauty, 
who being anxious to learn her future destiny, was an- 



336 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



swered by the priest, that she should wear a crov/n and 
the regal purple : but all her royalty meant no more 
than the figure and colour of the Pomegranate, into 
which she was transformed by Bacchus : 

Pomegranates full 

Of melting sweetness." 

T. Moore. 

Chaucer mentions this fruit as grateful to the sick : 

There were, and that wote I full wele^ 
Of pomegranettes a full great dele^, 
That is a fruit full well to like^ 
Namely to foike when they ben sike." 

Romance of the Rose. 

The Pomegranate appears to have been highly 
esteemed by the children of Israel ; it was held out as one 
of the great blessings of the land of promise, that this 
fruit grew there. They quarrelled v/ith Moses, that he 
brought them to a place where they could not find 
grapes, figs, and pomegranates ; and when he sent the 
elders of the difterent tribes to examine the land of 
Canaan, and see what it yielded, they brought to him 
from Eshcol these three fruits*. 

They adorned the robe of the high-priest with Pome- 
granates : 

" And upon the hem of it thou shalt make pomegranates of 
blue, and of purple^, and of scarlet, round about the hem thereof ; 
and bells of gold between them round about. 

" A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pome- 
granate upon the hem of the robe round about." 

Exodus, xxviii. 33, 34. 



* See Numbers xiii. 23 ; xx. 5 ; Deut. viii. 8. 



POMEGRx\NATE. 



337 



The Canticles speak of the wme of Pomegranates; 
and according to Sir John Char din, considerable quan- 
tities of wine are still made of the juice of Pomegranates, 
in the East, particularly in Persia*. The Turks about 
Aleppo frequently flavour their wine with the juice of 
this fine fruit •[*. 

* See Harris's Nat. Hist, of the Bible, p. 314. 
t Russell's Nat. Hist, of Aleppo, p. 107. 



z 



POPLAR TREE. 



POPULUS. 

SAUCINEiE. DIOECIA OCTANDRIA. 

French, peuplier ; Italian, pioppo. 

The White Poplar, Populus alba^ in Italian, Gattico, 
grows very tall, with a straight trunk, and a smooth pale 
bark ; the leaves are of a dead green above, but under- 
neath white and downy ; they are about three inches 
long, on a footstalk of about an inch, flattened, and 
grooved on each side. 

It is a native of Europe, from Sweden to Italy, of 
Siberia and Barbary ; it grows in woods and hedges, 
and takes delight in the neighbourhoods of rivers and 
brooks. There is a variety of this, called the Great 
White Poplar, or Abele tree, of which the leaves are 
nearly twice the size, and are less round in figure ; the 
young shoots are of a paler colour, and its growth is 
much quicker. The finest of these trees are natives of 
Holland and Flanders, and are called by some the Dutch 
Beech. 

Hartlib, in his Compleat Husbandman (1659), says 
that, some years ago, ten thousand Abeles were brought 
from Flanders at one time, and transplanted into several 
English counties. " This timber," &ays he, " is incom- 
parable for all sorts of wooden vessels, especially trays, 



POPLAR TEEE. 



339 



and butcher's trays cannot well he made without it, being 
so exceeding light and tough." 

Evelyn, speaking of the quick growth of this tree, 
says, " A specimen of this advance we have had of an 
Abele tree, at Sion, which being lopped in February, 
1651, did, by the end of October, 1652, produce 
branches as big as a man's wrist, and seventeen feet in 
height/' 

He tells us that Sir Richard Weston made a plantation 
of them near Richmond, calculating that thirty pounds 
laid out in this way would, in eighteen years, return at 
least ten thousand. 

The Dutch consider a plantation of them as an ample 
portion for a daughter. 

Martyn says, that floors which he had seen, made of 
planks of the Abele, were extremely beautiful. 

" The wood of the White Poplar," says Evelyn, " is 
sought of the sculptor. In sword and buckler days, 
they made shields of this material : it is soft, white, and 
stringy, and makes good wainscotting, being little subject 
to swell, or shrink." 

The Black Poplar, Populus nigra, has a long naked 
trunk, and a handsome regular head ; the bark is ash- 
coloured : the leaves are smooth on both sides, of a light 
green colour, and slightly notched at their edges. It is 
of quick grov/th, and in moist situations will rise to a 
great height, throwing out innumerable suckers from the 
roots. The bark being light, hke cork, serves to support 
the nets of fishermen. The wood is light, soft, and not 
apt to splinter ; is used by the turner, and in particular 
by the bellows-maker, being very close, yet light. It is 
considered as excellent for flooring, on account of its 

z 2 



340 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



slowness in taking fire, which is such, that it is said that 
the flames of a house on fire were stopped when they 
came to that part where this timber had been used. 
It smokes long before it flames, and is consequently a 
bad fuel. 

Brooms are made of the twigs, and in some places 
sheep are fed upon the dried leaves in winter. 

The foliage of this tree is of a glittering brightness, 
and its shade is esteemed wholesome. It will flourish in 
almost any soil, and the large thick leaves, full of juice, 
which fall in such abundance in the autumn, are thought 
to improve the ground they grow in : thus tracts of 
waste land, not dry, may in a few years be rendered 
fertile. 

In Kamschatka, the poor natives are sometimes re- 
duced to the necessity of making bread from the inner 
bark of this tree, as they do also of the fir, and as the 
peasants of Norway do both of that and the birch. Paper 
has been made from the cottony down of the seeds. In 
Flanders a prodigious quantity of shoes are made of 
Poplar wood, with which they supply all Holland. 
The Black Poplar grows in the same countries as the 
White. 

The Lombardy, Turin, or Po Poplar, Populus dila- 
tata, differs from the Black, chiefly in its close conical 
growth, in which it much resembles the cypress : the 
leaves too are broader than they are long, whereas those 
of the Black Poplar are the reverse. Some persons con- 
sider it only as a variety of that species. The wood of 
this tree is used for packing dry goods, as bales of 
woollen ; and for folding pieces of silk upon ; its lightness 
saving much expense in carriage. In Lombardy the 



POPLAR TREE. 



341 



carts in which the grapes are carried from the vineyard, 
are of these planks, cut about two inches thick, and in 
them the grapes are squeezed. 

In Essex this tree is called the Rochford, because it is 
said to have been first introduced into this country by 
the Earl of Rochford, who planted some in that county 
about the year 1758. 

The Tacamahaca Poplar, Populus halsamlfera^ is a 
native of Canada, and some other parts of North Ame- 
rica, and of Siberia. The scaly coverings of the buds 
abound with a tenacious balsam in the spring, which be- 
comes liquid by exposure to the sun ; it is yellow, and 
has a fragrant scent. 

From Canada this tree was taken to the Isle of Jersey, 
from whence six of the plants were sent to Caroline, the 
Queen of George the Second, in 1731, by the name of 
Arhre de la Reine. One of these was given by the Queen 
to Sir Hans Sloane, and was planted in the Botanic 
Garden at Chelsea. 

It is said that grouse, and other birds of that family, 
acquire a fine flavour by feeding on the buds during the 
winter in Siberia. 

There are several American Poplars : the Carolina 
Poplar, Populus angulata^ has very strong shoots, which 
are generally sharply cornered, and covered with a light 
green bark : as they advance in age, the bark becomes 
of a pale gray colour. It is a large tree in Carolina : it 
was cultivated in England in 1759 by Mr. Miller. 

The Athenian Poplar, Populus Grc£ca, was brought 
to England by Hugh, Duke of Northumberland, in 
1779. 

The aspen has been noticed by that name. 

The Poplar is well known as being sacred to Hercules : 



342 



SYLA^xVN SKETCHES. 



" The poplar to Alcides consecrate." 

He crowned his head with it from the banks of Acheron, 
when he returned from the infernal regions. His crown 
was of the White Poplar : 

" The poplar that with silver lines his leaf." 

In Virgil's ninth Eclogue, the shepherd inviting Ga- 
latea, mentions, among other recommendations, that the 
White Poplar grows near his dwelling : 

hie Candida populus antro 

Imminet^ et lentce texunt umbracula vites." 

^' Near to my grot the silver poplar grows^ 
Its shade inwoven with the leafy vine.'' 

When any ceremonies or sacrifices vv ere performed to 
Hercules, his worshippers wreathed their heads with the 
leaves and young shoots of this Poplai' : 

Turn Salii ad cantus^ incensa altaria circuni, 
Populeis adsunt evincti tempora ramis 

-^neid, viii. 

Translated by Dryden — 

" The Salii sing^ and cense his altars round 

With Sabine smoke, their heads with poplar bound." 

The poets tell us that the Heliades, on account of their 
great affliction at the death of their brother Phaeton, were 
changed into Poplars, their tears being converted into 
amber. They do not, indeed, altogether agree upon this 
subject : Ovid only says they were changed to trees ; and 
this having happened on the banks of the Po, he has been 
supposed to mean poplars, with which those banks are 
covered. 



POPLAR TREE. 



343 



Some have conferred this honour upon the larch ; but 
if there be a doubt, it lies between the Poplar and the 
alder. 

Sannazaro tells us this illustrious origin belongs to the 
Poplar : our countryman Cowley attributes it to the 
alder : 

" The Phaetonian alder next took place^ 
Still sensible of the burnt youth's disgrace ; 
She loves the purling streams^ and often laves 
Beneath the floods, and wantons with the waves." 

Book V. 

Rapin is for the Poplar : 

" Nor must the Heliad's fate in silence pass. 
Whose sorrow first produced the poplar race j 
Their tears, while at a brother's grave they mourn. 
To golden drops of fragrant amber turn." 

Book ii. 

Still more to add confusion to sylvan genealogy, Virgil, 
who (his birth being the most ancient) was most likely to 
know the truth of the affair, takes both sides of the 
question : in the sixth Eclogue, he says — 

" Turn Phaethontiadas musco circumdat araarae 
Corticis, atque solo proceras erigit alnos." 

Rendered by Dryden — 

" The sisters mourning for their brother's loss ; 
Their bodies hid in barks, and furred with moss^ 
How each a rising alder now appears. 
And o'er the Po distils her gummy tears." 

In the tenth Eneid— 



344 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



" Namque femnt, luctu Cycnum Phaethontis amati^ 
Populeas inter frondes umbramque sororum 
Dum canit, et raoestum Musa solatur amorem." 

" For Cycnus loved unhappy Phaeton^ 
And sung his loss in poplar groves, alone. 
Beneath the sister shades to soothe his grief." 

Dryden's Virgil. 

Spenser alludes to the circumstance, without naming 
the tree : 

" And eke those trees in whose transformed hue. 
The sun's sad daughters wailed the rash decay 
Of Phaeton, whose limbs with lightning rent. 
They gathering up, with sweet tears did lament." 

It is pretty generally understood, however, to be the 
Poplar tree that is so nearly related to the sun ; and the 
Black Poplar : and it is certain that there is no tree upon 
which the sun shines more brightly. 

The Lombardy Poplar also has its own peculiar me- 
rits, as well as the White and the Black : all the Poplars, 
indeed, have an elegant effect when mingled with trees 
of broader growth : 

" Gracing each other like the trees in spring, 
The tufted by the tall." 

But that of Lombardy has this great and peculiar 
beauty, that its fine spiral form, when agitated by the 
wind, moves in one sweep from the top to the bottom, 
forming a beautiful waving line, which Martyn aptly 
compares to an ostrich feather waving on a lady's head. 
All the branches, as he observes, coincide in the motion, 
and the least breeze will stir it, when other trees are at 



POPLAll TREE. 



345 



rest. This circumstance has been noticed by one of our 
living poets : 

" And there the alder was with its bright green;, 
And the broad chesnut, and the poplar's shoot. 
Thai Hke a feather waves from head to foot." 

Leigh Hunt. 

The following lively picture we may suppose to design 
the Black Poplar, as that which most reflects the sun- 
sliine : 

" The poplar there 

Shoots up its spire, and shakes its leaves i' the sun 
Fantastical, while round its slender base 
Rambles the sweet-breathed woodbine." 

3. Cornwall, 

Here we have the White Poplar : 

The greenwoods moved, and the light poplar shook 
Its silver pyramid of leaves.'' 

B. Cornwall. 

In the Odyssey, the busy motion of the Poplar leaves 
is compared to that of a woman's fingers when spinning : 

" Full fifty handmaids form the household train, 
Some turn the mill, or sift the golden grain ; 
Some ply the loom ; their busy fingers move 
Like poplar leaves when Zephyr fans the grove." 

Book vii. 

Garcilasso, the Spanish poet, likens it to a lady's hair, 
playing in the wind : 

" Each wind that breathes, gallantly here and there 
Waves the fine gold of her disordered hair. 
As a green poplar leaf in wanton play 
Dances for joy at rosy break of day." 

Wiffen's Garcilasso. 



346 



SYLVAN sketchp:s. 



It has been observed, that the Poplar is not dainty as 
to soil : it will grow in any but a very dry soil, but it 
most delights to coast the rills and brooks ; 

" The poplar trembling o'er the silver flood/' 

will grow more luxuriantly than in a wood, or park, 
where it has no water near : 

The poplar never dry/' 

says Spenser. The following is a beautiful miniature : 

"It was a shallow dell, set in a mound 
Of sloping shrubsj that mounted by degrees, 
The birch and poplar mixed with heavier trees ; 
From under which, sent through a marble spout. 
Betwixt the dark wet green a rill gushed out. 
Whose low sweet talking seemed as if it said 
Something eternal to that happy shade.'' 

Leigh Hunt. 

Cowper has addressed some verses to a field of Poplars 
under which he had been accustomed to sit, which were 
afterwards felled, much to the poefs regret. 



PSEUDO-ACACIA. 



ROBINIA. 

LEGUMINOS.E. DIADELPHIA PECANDRIA, 

This tree is commonly called simply, the Acacia. French, 
robinier_, caragan ; Italian, caragana. 

The foliage of the Robinia Pseudacacia, or Locust 
tree, is of a singularly beautiful green, the blcssoms pea- 
shaped and white (except that which, from ths colour of 
the blossom, is styled the Rose Acacia), and droop like 
the flow^ers of the Laburnum. They are very elegant, 
but of so short duration, that they are scarcel)r in beauty 
so long as a week. They bloAv in June, are very nu- 
merous, and sweet-scented. These are succeeded by an 
oblong pod, which, in mild seasons, will ripen in this 
country, but not till late in the autumn. 

In a favourable soil, this tree has been knoivn to shoot 
six feet in one year ; and, being well furnished with 
leaves, it is very handsome while young ; but if it is ex- 
posed to high winds, it is apt to be torn by them, and 
then it makes rather an unsightly appearance as it ad- 
vances in age. 

Evelyn says, that both these Acacias are apt to exhaust 
the soil; and another circumstance which renders the 
Robinia less desirable than otherwise it would be, is, 
that they do not put out their leaver till late in the 
spring, yet shed them early in the autumn. 



348 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Extraordinary things have been said of the value and 
duration of the wood of the Robinia. Evelyn quotes 
the opinion of a shipwright v/ho was sent over to Virginia 
to build two large ships, and used often to say that, if a 
sufficient quantity could be had, it would be the best 
timber he had ever met v/ith for building of ships. This 
man, after completing his engagements with his em- 
ployers, built a vessel for himself, and not having the 
iron necessary for some important parts of it, had recourse 
to the hazardous experiment of substituting the wood of 
the Locust tree. When he arrived in Liverpool, he 
thought it prudent to remove this wood from some parts, 
and replace it with iron, but it was found in very ex- 
cellent cordition. The parts for which it was used were 
what the shipwrights term trenails, a kind of wooden 
pins, generally used in building vessels ; but, in this case, 
they supplied the place of iron bolts. Tliis wood has 
since been used frequently for trenails, and found su- 
perior to tHe best oak in strength and duration ; but it is 
sufficiently plentiful to be used for other parts of ships. 

The leases affiard an excellent and grateful fodder to 
cattle ; and its cultivation has been much encom-aged 
for this purpose in New England, v/here the grass is fre- 
quently dried up by summer droughts. 



PYRACANTHA. 



CRAT^GUS PYRACANTHA. 

POMACES. ICOSANDRIA DIGYNIA, 

French, buisson ardent. 

The Pyracantha is a species of the Mespilus, placed 
apart only because it is best known by its specific name. 
Some call it the Evergreen Thorn, a name common to 
many shrubs ; and it was formerly known by the appel- 
lation of the Prickly Coral. The great beauty of this 
shrub is its fruit ; the glossy bunches of beautiful scarlet 
berries, with which it is covered in the winter. It is 
generally trained against a wall, that these berries may 
be seen to greater advantage ; and on a white, or pale- 
coloured wall, the bunches of red berries, intermingled 
with the green leaves, form a fine and pleasing contrast. 
The leaves fall only as the new ones dispossess them. 
The blossoms are white and small. 

The Pyracantha is a native of the south of Europe, 
and very abundant on Mount Caucasus, and in China. 
It was cultivated in England in 1629 : with us it flowers 
in May, The berries are eaten by birds. 

" Phillyrea here and pyracantha spread 
Their verdant foliage^, and berries red. 
In glowing clusters ; beauteous food ; unmeet 
For man, but to the welcome birds most sweet ; 
And every song that made their summer merry 
The shrubs repay in winter with a berry." 

CowiEY, book vi. 



SERVICE TREE. 



SORBUS. 

POMACEiE. ICOSANDRIA TRIGYNIA. 

French, sorbier ; Italian, sorbo. 

The Service tree, Sorbus Domesticable called in French, 
Alider, in ItaKan, Bagolaro, Loto. From which last 
name it is suspected to be the Lotus of the Romans, 
especially as it seems to agree with the description given 
by Pliny (Hist. Nat. 13, 17,) of that tree. It is of a 
middle size ; its growth is very slow, and it attains a 
great age before it produces any blossom. The leaves 
are pinnate, and alternate ; the leaflets of which they are 
composed are opposite, and A^ary in number from six to 
nine pairs, with an odd one at the extremity. The blos- 
soms are of the colour of country cream ; the fruit pear- 
shaped, of a reddish hue, and spotted ; it is harsh to the 
taste, and not fit for eating until mellowed by frost or 
time, when it becomes brown and very soft. 

This tree has been found wild in some parts of Eng- 
land, and is a native generally of the warmer parts of 
Europe, where it becomes a much larger and loftier tree 
than it is here. It flowers in May. The wood is very 
hard, and is much esteemed for mathematical rules. 

The Wild, or Maple-leaved Service, Sorhus Tormi- 
nalis, French, Alisier Tor'mi?iale, Italian, Ciavandello, is 
a native of England, and many other parts of Europe, 



SERVICE TREE. 



351 



chiefly in strong soils ; it grows forty or fifty feet high, 
with a large trunk, spreading at the top into a broad 
head. The blossom is white, and shaped like that of 
the pear-tree, but smaller. The fruit is shaped like the 
common haw, but is much larger ; it ripens in autumn, 
and if kept till it is brown and soft has an agreeable 
flavour. It is sold in the London markets. 

The wood is hard, and useful for many purposes. 

Like many other plants, their place or name is not 
determined by botanists ; some placing one or other of 
these trees in the genus Pyrus, some in the genus 
Cratsegus ; and others, as AUioni, place the first in the 
genus Mespilus. The Linnaean botanists do not agree 
even in what order of the class Icosandria they are to be 
ranked; some placing one in Icosandria Digynia, the 
other in Icosandria Pentagynia : others place both in 
Icosandria Pentagynia. The vacillation thus exhibited 
by the botanists of the artificial Linnaean school as to the 
proper place of these plants is an admirable example of 
the superior merit of the Natural System; as the bo- 
tanists of that school have constantly placed them in the 
family of the Pomaceae. 



SHRUBBY SYRIAN MALLOW. 



HIBISCUS SYRIACUS. 

MALVACE^. MONADELPHIA POLYANDRIA. 

This shrub is better known among gardeners and nurserymen 
by its old name of Altheea Frutex. French, ketmie; Italian, 
chetmia. 

This elegant shrub grows six or seven feet high, with 
many branches. The leaves are large, deeply cut into 
several divisions, of a cheerful green, and delicate tex- 
ture. In August appear the flowers, which are mallow- 
shaped, large, and numerous. There are several va- 
rieties, differing in the colour of their flowers ; one has 
white flowers, with a purple centre ; another has yellow ; 
some have several shades of purple, with white, and a 
black centre; some of rose colour and white, with a 
purple centre ; and others are finely variegated with all 
these colours. In mild seasons, there is a succession of 
flowers till near the end of September. 

This shrub is singularly beautiful ; it is a native of 
Syria ; is much cultivated in Cochin China ; and, for 
hedges, in Japan. According to Parkinson, it was cul- 
tivated in England in 1529 ; and Martyn observes, that 
it was probably a new shrub at that time, as he sets it 
down as tender, to be kept in a large tub or pot, in the 
house or a warm cellar. Gerarde, in 1597, speaks of it 
as a stranger in England ; adding, that he has sown the 
seeds in his garden, and is expecting their success. 



SPINDLE TREE. 



EUONYMUS. 

CELASTRINE^. PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIAo 

" Euonyraus/' says Martyn, " frorn the Greek for good name, 
because the shrub has a had reputation as a poison." French, 
fusain, or bonnet du pretre ; Italian, fusaria. We are told that, in 
Wales, it bears a name which signifies that it is the tree on which 
the black king of Tartarus undutifully hanged his mother. Why, 
his black majesty must have been as great a rogue as Nero ! 

This genus consists of trees and shrubs, of which the 
younger branches are four-cornered, and the leaves are 
opposite. 

The Common Spindle, or Skewer-wood tree, Euonymus 
Europceus, when growing in hedges, is a mere shrub ; 
but planted singly, will rise, with a strong woody stem, 
to the height of twenty feet, or more. The leaves are of 
a deep green, about three inches long, and one and a 
quarter broad. About the end of May, or early in J une, 
come out the flowers in bunches, from the sides of the 
branches ; the petals are nearly white, and spread in form 
of a cross. The fruit ripens in October, at which time 
the seed-vessels spread open, and expose the seeds, 
which, being of a beautiful rose-colour, make a fine 
show. 

With the country people this partakes of some of the 
familiar names of the cornel-tree. The wood is said to 
be most tough when the shrub is in blossom ; and, cut 
at that time, is used by the watchmakers for cleaning 

A A 



354 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



watches. It takes the name of bonnet du pretre^ from 
the form of the seed-vessel ; and the seed is pecuHar 
for its being covered with a beautiful scarlet cover, like 
mace ; it is called an arillus by botanists ; and when 
the fruit is nearly ripe becomes exposed by the opening 
of the outer cover. 

The Broad -leaved Spindle tree, Euonymiis lati- 
Jblkis, is a native of Austria, Hungary, and most of the 
southern parts of Europe. It has a stronger stem than 
the first, and grows to a larger size- The blossoms open 
white, and afterwards become purple. 

The Warted Spindle-tree, Euonymus verrucosus^ a 
native of Austria and Carniola, was cultivated here in 
1765, by Mr. J. Gordon. It flowers in May and June. 
The stem and branches are warted, whence its specific 
name. 

The Purple -flowered Spindle -tree, Euonymus atro- 
purpureusy is a native of the northern parts of Asia, and 
is a shrub of six feet. The footstalks and edges of the 
leaves are tinged with purple. This species was intro- 
duced here by Messrs. Kennedy and Lee, in 1756. 

The Evergreen Spindle-tree, Euonymus Americamis, 
was cultivated here by Bishop Compton, in 1713. It 
grows eight or ten feet high, with many branches, which 
come out opposite, from the joints of the stem. The 
leaves are about two inches long, and three-fourths of 
an inch broad, ending in acute points ; they are, as the 
name implies, green all the year. It flowers in July, 
but seldom produces ripe fruit in England. 



SUMACH. 



RHUS. 

CASSUVIiE. PENTANDRIA TRIGYNIA^ 

French, sumac ; Italian, sumacho. 

There are several species of Sumach in our English 
plantations, of which the principal are the following. 

The Elm-leaved Sumach, Rhus coriaria, French, 
Sumac d'Europe, Redoul^ Roudou, Rouvre des Cor- 
royeurs; Le Vinagrier; Italian, Sommaco, grows about 
ten feet high ; the flowers grow in spikes ; they are of a 
greenish white, and blow in July. This species is a 
native of the Levant, Italy, Spain, the south of France, 
&c. : it was cultivated in the Botanic Garden at Oxford 
in 1648. The branches are used for tanning leather; 
and it has been said that Turkey leather is all tanned 
with this shrub. Ground in a mill, sumach is also used in 
dyeing, instead of galls. The Tripoli merchants sell the 
seeds at Aleppo, where they are in common use, to pro- 
voke appetite. 

The Venice Red, or Silken Sumach, Rhus cotinus, 
French, Fustet, Coquesigrue ; Italian, Scotamo, grows 
about twelve feet high : the leaves are simple, (in which 
respect it differs from most of the species, the leaves 
being generally pinnate,) about two inches long, and the 
same in width ; the flowers are white and numerous ; 
they blov/ in July. It is a native of many parts of Eu- 
rope, the Levant and Siberia, and was cultivated by 

A A 2 



356 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Mr. J. Tradescant, junior, in 1656. The wood is used 
under the name of fustec, young fustick, (to distinguish 
it from the yellow wood of the Alorus tinctoria, or old 
fustick, for which it is used as a substitute,) as an orange 
dye, — but the colour is not durable. The bark is used 
as a substitute for the Peruvian bark in intermittent 
fever. The leaves are said to fetch a high price in the 
markets of Spain and Italy, where they are sold to dress 
Spanish skins, for which they are accounted excellent. 

The Virginian Sumach, Wins typliinum, is a native 
of North America: the young branches are covered 
with a soft velvet-like down, resembhng that of a stag's 
hom, both in colour and texture, whence it has vulgarly 
the name of StagVhorn tree. The flowers are produced 
in close tufts at the ends of the branches, in July; and 
are succeeded by seeds enclosed in purple, woolly, suc- 
culent covers, so that these bunches are of a beautiful 
colour in the autumn. 

This species also is used for tanning leather. It was 
cultivated here in 1629. 

The Scarlet Sumach, Rhus glabrum^ is also a North 
American : it grows in woods, high glades, and old 
corn-fields. The fruit remains on the shmb all the 
winter, but the leaves fall early in the autumn. Its 
height is about nine feet ; the blossoms are deep red, as 
also are the berries, which are used for dyeing that colour : 
they are very sour ; but children eat them with impu- 
nity. On cutting the stem, a yellow juice flows from 
between the bark and the wood ; one or two of the outer 
circles of the stem are white, the innermost of a yellowish 
green ; in the middle is a pith, half an inch or more in 
diameter, of a brown colour, and so loose that it is easily 
pushed out with a stick. The branches and berries. 



SUMACH. 



357 



boiled together, afford a black ink-like tincture. This 
Sumach was cultivated here in 1726. 

In the same year Mr. Catesby brought from South 
Carohna the Carolina Sumach, Rhus elegans, of which 
the blossoms are very numerous, and of a bright red 
colour; they begin to blow in July, and continue till 
autumn. The leaves of this species are not pinnate, but 
are cut into irregular lobes. 

Some of the Sum.achs are of a poisonous nature, par- 
ticularly the Rooting Sumach, or Poison Oak, Rhus 
radicans, and the Varnish Sumach, Rhus vernir, called 
also the Swamp Sumach, Poison-wood, Poison-tree, or 
Poison Ash. The latter grows in North America, and 
in Japan; it was cultivated here in 1713. The whole 
shrub is a violent poison, and the poison is communicated 
by touching or smelling to any part of it. It acts dif- 
ferently upon different persons ; indeed some few are not 
affected by it at all : those who are of an irritable habit, 
are the most liable to injury from it. It is said that a 
swarm of bees alighting upon the branches of this Su- 
mach, were destroyed by the effluvia. 

It contains a yellow juice between the wood and bark, 
which stains hnens a dark brown. 

Thunberg affirms that the very best Japan varnish is 
prepared from the Rhus vernlx, which grows in great 
abundance in that country, and is also frequently culti- 
vated for the great profit arising from it. This varnish, 
which oozes out of the stem when wounded, is obtained 
from trees of three years old ; when it first flows, it is of 
a lightish colour, and of the consistence of cream, but 
thickens and blackens on exposure to the air. With 
this varnish the Japanese cover the posts of their doors 
and windows, their drawers, chests, cabinets, scimitars. 



358 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



fans, cups, soup-dishes, portable-stools, and most articles 
of their household furniture which are made of wood. 

Thunberg tells us also that the candles in that country 
are made of an oil pressed from the seeds of a species of 
Sumach. " This oil,"" says he, " becomes^ when con- 
crete, of the consistence of tallow, and is not so hard as 
wax. The province of Tetsingo more particularly pro- 
duces this tree, and consequently supplies the greatest 
quantity of oil. Amongst the presents which the prince 
from this province brings to the Imperial Court, are one 
hundred candles of a foot in length, and as thick as a 
man's arm, with a wick in proportion. These gala can- 
dles are burned only twice a-year at court, on particular 
occasions*.'"* 



Thunberg's Travels in Japan,, vol. iii. p. 188. 



TAMARISK. 



TAMARIX. 

TAMARlCINEfi, PENTANDRIA TRIGYNIA. 

The French Tamarisk, Taviarix Gallica, is a na- 
tive of many parts of Europe, of Barbary, Japan, &c. 
and naturally grows to a middle-sized tree; here it is 
seldom more than fifteen or sixteen feet high. The bark 
is dark brown ; the leaves are very narrow, smooth, and 
bright green ; the flowers are produced in taper spikes 
at the ends of the branches, several growing on one 
branch ; they are about an inch long ; the flowers of 
which they are composed are very small, and closely 
set ; they are of a pale flesh-colour, enlivened by the 
anthers of bright red ; they open in July. 

This is an elegant tree, growing generally on the 
banks of rivers. Dr. Smith observed it growing abun- 
dantly in the hedges in Italy, near to the sea; and re- 
marked that the sheep preferred it to any other food', 
and would touch nothing else while that remained. It 
has been found wild in some parts of England. 

The Tartars and Russians make whip-handles of the 
wood. 

The German Tamarisk, Tamarix Gerimnlca, has 
many stalks growing from the root ; the foliage is more 
of a grey colour than that of the French Tamarisk ; the 
bark is first a pale green, and then turns to yellow ; the 
flowers are larger than the former, and not so close set. 
It is a native of many parts of Europe. It was first 



360 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



brought into England by Grindall, archbishop of Can- 
terbury, about the year 1558, and at that time was 
highly esteemed for medicinal purposes. 

Evelyn tells us that it was considered of old as one of 
the unfortunate trees, and under malediction, and there- 
fore used for wreaths to be put round the heads of male- 
factors. He says, too, that drinking-cans were made of 
the wood : and it is spoken of as affording brooms to the 
housewife : 

Amongst the rest the tamariske there stood. 
For huswives' besoraes onely knowne most good." 

W, Browne. 



TRUMPET FLOWER. 



BIGNONIA. 

BIGNONE^. DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMI A. 

French, bignone ; Italian, bignonia. 

This genus is superlatively beautiful ; it contains trees 
and shrubs which inhabit the warm climates of the East 
and West Indies ; the flowers are large and handsome, 
varying in colour according to the species. 

The Catalpa tree has already been noticed by its 
Indian appellation, by which it is best known in the 
English nurseries. 

The Bignonia unguis is from the West Indies ; the 
stems are slender, and require support, to obtain which 
they stretch forth their tendrils to whatever may grow 
nearest to them, and by their means fasten themselves 
firmly. The flowers grow in the wings of the leaves, 
and are shaped like the fox-glove. 

Bignonia Mquinoctialis^ like the former, clings to its 
neighbour by its clasping tendrils. The leaves are of a 
brilliant green, and remain on all the year Where they 
have room, the branches will ramble to a great distance : 
the flowers are yellow ; they are produced at the joints 
of the stalks, Mr. Miller received this from La Vera 
•Cruz, in New Spain. 



362 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Blgnonia ruhescens, the Hooting, or Ash -leaved 
Trumpet flower, French, Jasmin de la Virginie ; 
Itahan, Bignonia Florida, grows in the same manner. 
In Europe, where it is generally planted against walls, 
it strikes into the mortar, and, so supported, rises to the 
height of forty or fifty feet. The leaves are pinnate, 
composed of four pairs of leaflets, terminated by an odd 
one ; these are placed in pairs at every joint of the stalks. 
The flowers are produced at the ends of the shoots of the 
year, in large bunches ; they have long swelling tubes, 
shaped somewhat like a trumpet, are orange-coloured, 
and open early in August : this species w^as cultivated 
here in 1640. 

The Bignonia serapervirens^ or Carohna Yellow Jas- 
mine, which the later botanists call Gelscminitm sem- 
pervire7is, climbs in the same manner as the others. The 
leaves are green throughout the year ; the flowers are 
trumpet-shaped, and stand erect ; they are of a golden 
yellov/, and extremely fragrant. In South Carolina, its 
native land, it spreads over the hedges, and in the 
flovv^ering season perfumes the air to a great distance. 
It grows, but less plentifully, in Virginia also, where it 
is called Yellow Jasmine. 

All the species here m.entioned will grow abroad in 
this country, v/hen they have acquired strength, being 
protected by mats in frosty weather, and having a little 
old tanners' bark laid over the roots. The Ash-leaved 
Bignonia will live without this tender care : this sends 
out a great many suckers, which may be taken ofl* and 
planted : these will flower in two or three years. When 
raised from seed, it will be seven or eight years before it 
produces fl^owers. These plants are of long duration ; 



TEUMPET FLOWER. 363 

Miller speaks of some in full vigour, and producing an 
abundance of flowers every season, which he knew to be 
upwards of sixty years old. 

The green-house and hot-house boast of many other 
species of this splendid genus. 

Maximilian mentions a variety of Bignonias growing 
luxuriantly in the w^oods of Brazil, enlivening them with 
every variety of colour. 

" Several Bignonias overhung the river ; they were 
loaded with large beautiful violet-coloured flowers, which 
appear before the leaves, and were j ust opening, — pink- 
blossomed ones also. 

" The Bougainvillaea Brasiliensis twined round the 
tops of the trees, which were partly without leaves, and 
covered them all over with its rose-coloured flowers : 
numerous varieties, also, of Trumpet flowers, some rising 
high, some creeping on the ground, were growing in the 
greatest luxuriance ; adorned with every variety of rose- 
coloured, violet, white, and yellow blossoms. 

" This beautiful Bougainvill^a, and Bignonias, co- 
vered with a profusion of gold-coloured blossoms the 
dark tops of the loftiest trees.'' 

Again, he describes " a forest of old colossal trees, as 
Mimosas, Lignum Vitse, and Bignonias, &c., with parasite 
plants, as Passiflora,Bauhinia,Banisteria, &c.; the climbing 
stems of which were rooted in the ground, while their 
leaves and flowers occupy only the highest summits of 
their supporters ; so that they cannot be examined 
without cutting down one of those gigantic monarchs of 
the forest*." 



* Maximilian's Brazil. 



364 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Trees are sometimes so strongly fastened, and, as it 
were, netted in these twining shrubs, that they will not 
fall, though a number of them should be cut. Some- 
times they bind the trees so tightly as to destroy them ; 
but oftentimes they will give protection to the trees that 
support them ; and, as Mr. Drummond observes, it is 
probable they may on many occasions prevent their being 
overthrown by storms*. 

" Pale blue, and bright violet bindweeds grow luxu- 
riantly and interlace each other. We were particularly 
struck with a splendid shrub which has a very close 
affinity with the Trumpet flower, with large bright red 
blossoms, which glowed like fire in the dark shade. We 
soon came to a large forest : lofty, slender, white-barked 
mimosas, cecropias, cocoas, and other trees, were here so 
closely interwoven with innumerable creeping plants, that 
the whole seemed to form one impenetrable mass. In 
the dark summits of the trees, the flowers of the Big- 
nonia Bellas (so called after the Marchioness de Bellas, 
who first discovered this beautiful plant) glowed like 
firef." 

Mr. Drummond quotes a passage from CooFs Voyages, 
which well exemplifies the support returned to the trees 
by these slender parasites. 

" On the 17th we spent the forenoon in cutting down 
a immber of very tall trees, of which v/e wished to gather 
the flowers, but all our effbrts were in vain. We had no 
sooner cut a tree, than it hung in a thousand bindweeds 

* Drummond's First Steps to Botany, 
t Maximilian's Brazil. 



TRUMPET FLOWER. 365 

and climbers from top to bottom, from which it was not 
in our power to disengage it*." 

Had the Bignonias been Europeans, we should, 
doubtless, have found their beauty celebrated in various 
tongues. 

* Forster's Voyages, vol. i. p. 506. (New Zealand.) 



TULIP TREE. 



LIRIODENDKUM. 

MAGNOLIACEiE. POLYANDRIA POLYGYNIA, 

The botanical name signifies liiy tree ; the tree bearing liliaceous 
flowers. It is called by our English gardeners tulip tree. French^ 
tulipier ; Italian, tulipifero. 

The Tulip tree, Liriodendrum tuUpifera, is a na- 
tive of North America, where it grows to a great size, 
and is generally known in the English settlements by 
the title of Poplar. When it was first brought to this 
country, and for some time afterwards, it was planted in 
pots, and housed in winter with myrtles, oranges, &c. 
from a notion that it could not bear the open air ; and 
thus treated, it grew but slowly : the first tree of the 
kind which bore flowers here was in the gardens of the 
Earl of Peterborough, at Parson's Green, near Fulham. 
It was there planted among other trees in a wilderness ; 
and by the great progress it made, soon convinced the 
gardeners of their mistake in treating it so tenderly. 
From that time, they have been planted abroad, where 
they grow to a considerable size, especially where the 
soil is rather moist. This tree at Parson's Green has 
afforded much knowledge to the gardeners, as well in its 
death as in its life ; for though planted in the open air, the 
neighbouring trees were suffered to overhang it, to shelter 
it from the wind ; these trees robbed it of its nourishment, 
and in the end destroyed it. 



TULIP TE.EE. 



The leaves of the Tuhp tree are of a singular form, 
being divided into three lobes, of which the middle one 
is blunt, and hollowed at the point, as if cut with scissars ; 
the leaf is about four inches long, and about the same 
width near the base ; the foot-stalk is of much the same 
length. A strong midrib runs from the footstalk along 
the leaf, from which branch several smaller veins, and 
these again break into more minute ramifications. The 
upper surface of the leaf is smooth, and of a fine lucid 
green ; beneath, their colour is much paler. The fiowers, 
which are produced at the ends of the branches, are com- 
posed of six petals, three without, and three within, 
forming a sort of bell-shaped flower ; whence the inha- 
bitants of North America gave it the title of Tulip, 
These flowers are marked with green, yellow, and red 
spots, and when the trees are in full flower, they have 
a very handsome appearance. The blossoms open in 
July, and when they fall, are succeeded by a kind of 
cone, which does not ripen in England. 

Kalm observes, that it is very pleasant at the end of 
May to see one of these large trees with its singular leaves, 
covered for a fortnight together with flowers which have 
the shape, size, and partly the colour of Tulips. The 
wood is used for canoes (whence the Swedes resident in 
North America call it Canoe tree), for bowls, dishes, and 
spoons. This author mentions a barn which he saw, of 
considerable size, the sides and roof of which were formed 
of one Tuhp tree, split into boards : but he says this 
wood is subject to one great inconvenience, for that it 
contracts and expands itself more than any other. The 
bark is pounded, and given as a medicine to horses. The 
roots are supposed to be a good substitute for Jesuits' 
bark in cases of ag-ue. 



368 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Mr. Marshall describes this tree as seventy or eighty 
feet high ; and Catesby says some of them are thirty 
feet in circumference in America, and that the timber is 
used in New England for periagues ; the trunk being 
large enough to be hollowed out into those boats, which 
are made of one piece, and will carry a number of men. 

" This is,"' says Martyn, " a tree of extraordinary 
beauty and stateliness, and highly deserves a place in all 
noble and elegant plantations.'' 

The Oriental Tuhp tree, L. lilifera, is a smaller tree, 
with a blossom of nine petals, a native of China. 



TUPELO TREE. 



NYSSA. 

SANTALACE^. POLYGAMIA DKECIA, 

Named Nyssa, from a water nymph, on account of its growing in 
the water. 

The Mountain Tupelo tree, or Sour Gum, a native 
of Pennsylvania, was cultivated in this country by the 
Duke of Argyll, in 1750. It will grow as high as forty 
feet, with a trunk two feet in diameter. The leaves are 
of a dark lucid green on the upper surface ; paler, and 
somewhat hairy underneath ; those of the male tree are 
generally much narrower than those of the female, or 
fruit-bearing tree. The timber is close-grained and 
curled, so that it will not split : it is useful in making 
carriage-wheels. 

The Virginian, or Water Tupelo tree, is a native of 
the wet swamps of Virginia, Carolina, Florida, &c. and 
will grow to the height of an hundred feet. There is a 
beautiful variety in the foliage of this tree, produced by 
the downy whiteness of the lower side of the leaves, con- 
trasted by the deep green of the upper side, and the 
long slender foot -stalks which keep them in continual 
play. The berries are about the shape and size of small 
olives ; and are preserved, like that fruit, by the French 
in the neighbourhood of the Mississippi, where the tree 

B B 



370 SYLVAN SKETCHES. 

gi'eatly abounds, and is called the olive tree. The 
wood, when dry, is light and compact. This species was 
introduced here by Peter Collinson, Esq. in the year 
1735. 

These trees will not thrive but in very moist ground. 



WALNUT TEEE. 



JUGLANS. 

JUGLANDE^. MONGECIA POLYANDKIA. 

Juglans, from Jovis glans, Jove's acorn. French, noyer ; Italian, 
noce. 

The Common Walnut tree, Juglans regia^ is not an 
aboriginal of Eui'ope, nor is its native country accurately 
known. Tt has been thought to have come originally 
from Persia; first to Greece, thence to Italy. It has 
been found wild in some parts of China. The English 
name is a corruption of Gaul-nut. 

It is a large and lofty tree, w^ith strong spreading 
branches. The leaves are pinnate, large, smooth, and 
shining. The blossoms begin to open about the middle 
of April, and are in full bloom by the middle of May, 
by which time the leaves are entirely spread. The fruit 
needs no description. There are several varieties, as the 
large, the thin-shelled, &c. 

This fruit, umipe, is well known as a pickle ; and it is 
not likely that the reader should be unacquainted with its 
ripe kernel. 

An oil is obtained from these nuts, which is very useful 
to artists in white or other delicate colours, and which 
answers the same medicinal purposes as oil of almonds. 
In many places, it is used instead of butter, both to eat, 
and for frying, and is also burned in lamps. The green 
husks boiled furnish a good dark yellow dye. 

B b2 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



The tree, wounded in the spring, yields a juice, of 
which a kind of wine is made. Evelyn speaks of one of 
the sovereigns of Europe in his time, who was said to 
drink a great quantity of this juice daily, and to derive 
great benefit from it. 

Dr. Clarke tells us that the Tartars pierce the Walnut 
trees in the spring, when the sap is rising, and put in a 
spigot for some time ; and that when that is withd^a^vn, 
a clear sweet liquor flows out, which, when coagulated, 
they use as sugar*. 

In some parts of Italy, France, Germany, and Swit- 
zerland, the Walnut is very much cultivated. Burgundy 
abounds with it ; and whenever thev fell a tree, says 
Evelyn, which is only the old and decayed, the}^ always 
plant a young one near. 

In several places in Germany, he tells us, that no 
young farmer is permitted to marry till he bring proof 
that he has planted a stated number of Walnut trees. 
And the law is inviolably observed to this day, for the 
extraordinary benefit which this tree affords the iiJia- 
bitants.'' 

In France and Switzerland, the wood of the Walnut 
is still in use for furniture, as it was in England until it 
was superseded by the use of mahogany. At present 
the Walnut wood is all bought up by the gunmakers, for 
gun-stocks. The latter years of the late convulsions of 
Europe were peculiarly fatal to the Walnut trees of 
England. As a good sized tree would produce 600Z. and 
upwards when cut out into stocks, few landholders about 
London resisted the temptation of this high price, and 
every tree that was not protected by some legal barrier. 



Clarke's Travels, vol. i. p. 534. 



WALNUT THEE. 



S73 



of a lease or otherwise, fell before the strokes of tlie axe. 
The Black Virginian Walnut, however (so called from 
the black colour of the timber), is far superior for fur- 
niture. 

" Had we store of this material," says Evelyn, espe- 
cially of the Virginian, we should find an incredible im- 
provement in the more stable furniture of our houses. 
In truth, were this timber in greater plenty among us, 
we should have far better utensils of all sorts for our 
houses, as chairs, stools, bedsteads, tables, wainscots, 
cabinets, &c. instead of the vulgar beech, subject to the 
worm, weak, and unsightly."" 

. The shade of the Walnut tree M as held by the Romans 
to be particularly unwholesome. The Black Walnut 
will not let any thing grow under it ; and if planted in 
an orchard, will kill all the apple trees in its neighbour- 
hood ; but the common walnut is more hospitable, and 
will grow innocently in the midst of corn without hurting 
the crop. So Evelyn affirms ; but Philips does not give 
it so good a character : 

Or Walnut;, whose malignant tcuch impairs 
All generous fruits." 

The Romans esteemed the wood of the Walnut tree 
as highly as Evelyn himself could wish. He tells us that 
he learns from Strabo that tables of it were once even 
of higher price than those of citron ; and that he had seen 
some planks of it, than which nothing could be more 
beautiful. It is famed no less for its soundness than the 
beauty of its grain. 

Fairfax speaks of 

" The barren platane, and the 'Walnut sound*."- 

* Fairfax's Tasso, book 3. ^t. 76. 



874 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Dodsley, in his poem on Agriculture, refers to the 
beauty of its grain : 

" The sweet-leaved Wahiut's undulated grain. 
Polished with care, adds to the workman's art 
Its varying beauties." 

Evelyn says, that some of the Walnut timber which 
comes to us from Virginia " is very black of colour, and 
so admirably streaked, as to represent natural flowers, 
landscapes, and other fancies/' 

Cowley has a very curious passage, in which he com- 
pares the Walnut to the brain of man. He tells us that 
its oil nourishes the hair. Indeed he enumerates a variety 
of uses ; and badly as it is translated, its oddity will, 
perhaps, render it not altogether uninteresting : 

The Walnut, then, approached, more large and tall 
His fruit, which we a nut, the gods an acorn call : 
Jove's acorn, which does no small praise confess 
To 've called it man's ambrosia had been less. 
Nor can this head-like nut, shaped like the brain 
Within, be said that form by change to gain, 
Or Caryon called by learned Greeks in vain : 
For membranes soft as silk her kernel bind. 
Whereof the inmost is of tenderest kind. 
Like those which on the brain of man we find ; 
All v/hich are in a seam -joined shell enclosed; 
Which of this brain the skull may be supposed : 
This very skull envelop'd is again 
In a green coat, his pericranium : 
Lastly, that no objection may remain 
To thwart her near alliance to the brain, 
She nourishes the hair, remembering how 
Herself, deformed, without her leaves does show ; 
On barren scalps she makes fresh honours grow. 



WALNUT TREE. 



t375 



Her timber is for various uses good ; 

The carver she supplies with lasting wood : 

She makes the painter's fading colours last : 

A table she aflPords us, and repast ; 

E'en while we feast, her oil our lamp supplies ; 

The rankest poison by her virtue dies. 

The mad dog's foam, and taint of raging skies. 

The Pontic king who lived where poisons grew. 

Skilful in antidotes, her virtues knew; 

Yet envious fates, that still with merit strive. 

And man, ungrateful, from the orchard drive 

This sovereign plant ; excluded from the field, 

Unless some useless nook a station yield. 

Defenceless in the common road she stands. 

Exposed to restless war of vulgar hands : 

By neighbouring clowns and passing rabble torn. 

Battered with stones by boys, and left forlorn." 

Cowley's Plants, book v. 

Evelyn, speaking of the virtues of the Walnut here 
recounted by Cowley, goes so far as to say, that if the 
kernel, being a little masticated, be laid to the bite of a 
mad dog for three hours, and then cast to poultry, they 
will die if they eat of it. Of its shade he says, that it has 
been causelessly defamed; that the scent of the fallen 
leaves may have proved noxious to some persons, but 
while fresh, and on the tree, never. 

Virgil forms a judgment of the future harvest by the 
appearance of the Walnut tree in the spring. 

Conteraplator item, quum se nux plurima silvis 
Induct in florera, et ramos curvabit olentes : 
Si superant foetus, pariter frumenta sequentur. 
Magnaque cum magno veniet tritura calore. 
At si luxuria foliorum exuberat umbra, 
Nequicquam pingues palea teret area cuhnos." 

Georg. i. 



876 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Observe also when the wahiut tree shall put on its bloom 
plentifully in the woods^ and bend down its strong smelling 
branches ; if it abounds in fruity you will have a like quantity of 
corn, and a great threshing, with much heat. But if it abounds 
with a luxuriant shade of leaves, in vain shall your floor thresh 
the corn, which abounds with nothing but chaff." — (Martyn's 
Translation.) 

Most of the translators have rendered m{jc the almond 
tree ; but Martyn has very clearly made it out to be the 
Walnut tree. If it might be allowed to change two 
words of Dry den's version, it would remove the error : 

^' Mark well the flowering Walnuts in the wood ; 
If numerous blooms the bearing branches load 
The glebe will answer to the sylvan reign. 
Great heats will follow, and large crops of grain, 
^ But if a wood of leaves o'ershade the tree, 
Such, and so barren will thy harvest be ; 
In vain the hind shall vex the threshing floor. 
For empty chaff and straw will be thy store." 

Walnuts were commonly strewed at the Roman wed- 
dings. " This ceremony,"' says Dr. Hunter, " w^as to 
show that the bridegroom had left off all boyish amuse- 
ments." 

Horace speaks of some game played with nuts by 
the Roman boys, — with nuts and little bones*. 

— Postquam te talos, Aule, nucesque 

Ferre sinu laxo, donare et ludere vidi." 

Satire iii. book 2. 

" You, Aulus, during your childhood, I have observed to carry 
your bones and nuts carelessly in your bosom, to play them boldly^ 
and make presents of them to your companions." 

* A game is still played by schoolboys in France, which they 
call osselets, (little bones,) in which are used the ankle-bones of 
sheep, ground square. 



WALNUT TREE. 



37T 



Allusions are frequently made to this nuptial sport, 
by the poets : 

" Let ihe air with Hymen ring. 
Hymen, lo Hymen, sing. 
Soon the nuts will now be flung : 
Soon the wanton verses sung ; 
Soon the bridegroom will be told 
Of the tricks he played of old. 
License then his love had got. 
But a husband has it not : 
Let the air with Hymen ring, 
liymen, lo Hymen, sing." 

Leigh Hunt, from Catullus. 

Herrick has introduced this custom in his Epithala- 
mium on Sir Thomas Southvrell and his lady : 

Now bar the door, the bridegi-oom puts 
The eager boys to gather nuts." 

A note on this passage says — " The ceremony of throw- 
ing nuts at a wedding, for which boys scrambled, was of 
Athenian origin.'" 

Virgil has an allusion to it in his eighth pastoral : 

" tibi ducitur uxor : 

Sparge, marite, nuces ' 

prepare the lights, 

O Mopsus ! and perform the bridal rites ; 
Scatter thy nuts among the scrambling boys.'" 
Dryden's Virgil. 

Nuts of various kinds made an important figure in the 
country festivals at Christmas some years back : Spenser 
alludes to these games in the Shepherd's Calendar for 
December : 



378 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



" I wont to range amid the mazy thicket, 

And gather nuts to make me Christmas-game - 
And joyed oft to chase the trembling pricket. 
Or hunt the heartless hare till she were tame^ 
What wrecked I of wintry age's wast, 
Tho' deemed I my spring would ever last. 

How often have I scaled the craggy oak. 
All to dislodge the raven of her nest ! 
How have I wearied with many a stroke 
The stately walnut tree, the while the rest 

Under the tree fell all for nuts at strife ! 

For like to me was liberty and life." 

Collinson, in his History of Somersetshire, speaking of 
the Glastonbury thorn, of which it has been said that it 
always buds on Christmas day, says that there grew also 
" in the abbey churchyard on the north side of St. 
Joseph's chapel, a miraculous Walnut tree, which never 
budded forth before the feast of St. Barnabas (that is, 
the eleventh of June), and on that very day shot forth 
leaves, and flourished like its usual species. (This tree is 
gone, and in the place thereof, stands a very fine Wal- 
nut tree of the common sort.) It is strange to say how 
much this tree was sought after by the credulous ; and 
though not an uncommon Walnut, Queen Anne, King 
James, and many of the nobility of the realm, even when 
the times of monkish superstition had ceased, gave large 
sums of money for small cuttings from the original*."' 

There is something in the walnut which excites pleasing 
associations ; it makes its appearance, with the wine, after 
the removal of grosser food; and many an interesting 
iirgument, social conversation, and volley of wit and 

* Vol. ii. p. 265. 



WALNUT THEE. 



379 



laughter, has been carried on with the accompaniment of 
the nut-crackers. The merely dipping it into the salt, 
too, gives time to form the joke, prepare the repartee, 
or parry an adversary's argument. 

This dehcate nut is enclosed with a care it well de- 
serves. 

Walnut, in rough furrowed coat secure." 

Philips. 

Evelyn says it is thought better to beat the nuts off, 
than to gather them from the tree by hand. " In Italy," 
says he, they arm the tops of long poles with nails and 
iron for the purpose, and believe the beating improves 
the tree, which I no more believe than I do that dis- 
cipline would reform a shrew.'' 

The Spaniards peel Walnuts that are stale and hard, 
and grate them over their tarts, cakes, &c. One bushel 
of nuts is supposed to yield fifteen pounds of clear, 
peeled kernels; and from these are obtained half the 
weight of oil ; the oil is more plentiful when drawn from 
the fresh nut, but of finer quality if the nut be drier. 

Evelyn affirms that an Italian peasant, w^hen he has a 
pain in the side, drinks a pint of this fresh oil, and finds 
immediate relief from it. In France, the kernels are cut 
out of the shells before they are hardened, with a short 
broad brass knife : these, from the manner of scooping 
them out, are called cerneaux, and are eaten with wine 
and salt. 

Mrs. Holderness says the Walnut tree is among the 
most remarkable fruit-trees of the Crimea ; that in the 
valleys of the south coast, it attains to a prodigious size, 
and forms a most delightful shade around some of the 
Tartar villages. " I have been confidentially assured,'' 



580 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



continues she, " that a single tree has been known to 
produce sixty thousand walnuts yearly ; and a respectable 
proprietor of Sudac told me that a tree in his possession 
bears annually forty thousand*.*^ 

Mr. Sass tells us that the road from Milan to the 
Simplon is bordered, for some distance, with walnut and 
chestnut trees, and continues through vineyards and plan- 
tations of mulberries, to Sesto-f-. " The Bergstras,*" 
says Evelyn, " (which extends from Heidelberg to 
Darmstadt) is all planted with Walnuts, so as that a 
man may ride for many miles under a continued arbour, 
or close walk, refreshed both by their fruit and theii* 
shade." 

" How would such public plantations improve the 
glory and wealth of a nation proceeds he : " But 
where shall we find the spirit among our countrymen ? 
Yes, I will adventure to instance in those plantations of 
Sir Richard Stidolph, upon the Downs, near Leather- 
head, in Surrey, Sir Robert Clayton, at Morden, near 
Godstone (once belonging to Sir John Evelyn), and so 
about Cassoulton ; where many thousands of these trees 
do celebrate the industry of the owners, and will cer- 
tainly reward it with infinite improvement, as I am as- 
sured they do already, and that very considerably 

Although the Walnut is not very dainty in its soil or 
situation, it is said to prefer the vale to the hill, because 
better sheltered from keen winds : 

" The walnut loving vales — = " 

says Browne. 

* Mrs. Holclerness's New Russia, p. 285. 
t Sass's Journey to Rome and Naples, p. 308. 
: Sylva, vol. i. p, 169. 



WAYFARING TREE, 



VIBURNUM LANTANA. 

CAPRIFOLIC^. PENTANDRIA TRIGYNIA, 

Also called wild Guelder rose. French, carnara, mancienne ; 
Italian, lentaggine. 

The Lantana is a shrub or small tree, with rounds 
pliant, mealy twigs, whence by some it is called Pliant 
Mealv tree. The leaves are placed opposite in pairs ; 
they are of a dark-red colour in the autumn, before they 
fall : the flowers grow in clusters, in botanical language 
cymes; they are white, and are succeeded by berries 
which, when young, are red on one side, and yellow on 
the other ; when ripe, they are entirely black. 

This tree is a native of all but the most northern parts 
of Europe; with us, it grows chiefly in woods and 
hedges, flowering in May. Dr. Withering says, that the 
bark of the root is used to make bird-lime. 

This is generally supposed to be the Viburnum of 
Virgil, but this is not easily ascertained ; his is supposed 
to be a low shrub, because he contrasts it with the tall 
cypress. Martyn supposes Viburna, in the plural, to 
have been used by ancient writers, for any shrubs which 
were used for binding or tying. 

This tree growing plentifully in every corner, afibrds 
pins for the yokes of oxen ; and superstitious people^ 
thinking that it protects their cattle from being bewitched, 
place the shrub about their stalls. According to Evelyn, 
a decoction of the leaves will not only dye the hair black* 
but will fasten the roots also. 



WHITE-BEAM TREE. 



PYRUS ARIA. 

,?OMACEi?<. ICOSANDRIA DIGYNIA, 

French, alizier ; Italian, aria, sorbo peloso. 

This tree will grow forty feet high, with a large trunk ; 
the leaves are about three inches long, and half that 
width ; of a light green on the upper surface, but very 
white on the lower. The flowers grow at the ends of the 
branches, in bunches or corymbs, two inches or more in 
diameter: they are white, and are succeeded by red 
berries. 

The White Beam is a native of most parts of Europe, 
chiefly on dry liills, and sandy exposures, in gravel, clay, 
or chalk, or from the fissures of limestone rock. With 
us, it grows in all but the eastern counties. 

The wood being hard, tough, and smooth, is made 
into axle-trees, wheels^ walking sticks, and tool handles. 
The fruit is eatable when mellowed by frost, and an 
ardent spirit may be distilled from it. 

The straight handsome growth of this tree, the 
smoothness of the bark, the extreme whiteness of the 
under surface of the leaves, and the handsome bunches of 
white flowers, succeeded by red berries, render it very 
desirable as a variety in ornamental plantations. 

In Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Lancashire, and 
Westmoreland, it is called Red Chess Apple, and Sea 
Owler ; in Derbyshire, Wild Pear tree. Oerarde calls 
it Cumberland Hawthorn. In some places it is known 
by the name of White Leaf tree. 



WIDOW-WAIL, 



CNEORUM TRICOCCUM. 

AMYRIDE^. TRIANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 

French^ camelee : Italian, gneoro : Called also spurge olive. 

The Cneorum is a humble shrvib, growing in hot, 
dry, and rocky soils in the south of France, Italy, and 
Spain. It was cultivated in this country by Gerarde in 
1596. 

Although of low growth, yet as it is evergreen, bushy, 
and well furnished with leaves, this shrub is both orna- 
mental and useful in filling up vacancies left near the 
earth by taller shrubs. The leaves are about an inch 
and a half long, and a quarter of an inch in the middle ; 
of a dark green, with a strong vein or rib down the 
middle. The flowers grow from the wings of the leaves, 
near the extremity of the branches ; their colour is a 
pale yellow ; they begin to blow in May, and continue, 
in mild seasons, even to the end of October. The fruit, 
which is composed of three seeds joined together like 
those of euphorbia, is at first green, afterwards brown, 
and when fully ripe, is quite black. 

This shrub was formerly preserved in greenhouses, 
but has now long sustained our climate in the open 
ground, and is found to bear it very well, even in the 
severest seasons, if it be planted in a poor dry soil ; but 
if the ground be moist and rich, the shoots become more 
luxuriant, and are often injured by hard frosts. 



t 



^FILD CHERRY TREE. 

PRUNUS xWIUM. 
amygdale^u. icosandria monogynia. 

French, merisier; Italian, ciliegio. 

The Wild, or Black Cherry, is a native of England ; 
it grows to a large timber tree, and is very proper to 
plant in parks, since it is also very beautiful. In spring, 
when in full blossom, it is particularly ornamental. Birds 
are as well pleased with the fruit as w^e are with the 
blossom ; and while there is fruit to be found, they con- 
vert it into a musical bower, where, as long as the sun 
shines, their cheerful notes are unceasing. 

About Polstead, in Suffolk, it grows in abundance, 
and is there called the Polstead Cherry. In Bucking- 
hamshire, this tree is very much cultivated. In some of 
the southern counties, the Wild Cherries are called 
Merries, from the French Merise. The Corone, or 
Crown, which is an improved variety of this species, is 
very common in Hertfordshire, and in some parts of 
Norfolk. 

The wood is used for chairs, cabinets, tables, &c. and 
for musical instruments, especially the redder sort, which 
will polish well. 

Herrick has a pretty little address to the Cherry 
blossoms : 

^' Ye may simper, blush and smile, 
And perfume the air awhile ; 



WILD CHERRY TREE. 



385 



But, sweet things, ye must begone ; 
Fruit, ye know, is coming on ; 
Then, ah then ! where is your grace. 
When as cherries come in place ?" 

Sir W. Ouseley says, that the Turks have the tubes 
of their pipes, which are from five to seven feet longj 
made of Cherry wood, 



c c 



VvILLOW TREK 



SALIX. 

SALICINE.^'. DICECIA DIANDRIA. 

The word salix expresses quick growth. French, saule ; Italian, 
salcio. 

Soil, climate, and situation so greatly influence the 
Willow, that varieties are multiphed beyond number ; 
many which are but varieties, too, have been divided 
into distinct species, so that their number is very great. 
According to some botanists, there are more than fifty 
British Willows only. 

The general appearance of the Willow is well know^n ; 
and it will suffice to notice such things as are of interest 
in a few of the species. 

The Sweet, or Bay-leaved Willow, Salioc pentandria, 
is much used in Yorkshire for making baskets ; its leaves 
afibrd a yellow dye. 

Baskets are made from many of the Willows, as well 
as the Osier, which belongs to this genus ; but of the 
Willows, the Bitter Purple Willow, Salix purpurea, is 
the best adapted for that purpose, and is used for the 
finest work. 

The Yellow Willow, Salix vitellina, is very common 
in Russia, and is used at Easter, instead of Palms, in the 
Greek churches. The down will make tolerable paper, 
and serve some of the purposes of genuine cotton. 

The Common, or White Willow, Salix alba, takes its 



WILLOW TRii:. 



38T 



specific name from the white silken surface of the leaves 
on the under side. The bark is used to tan leather, and 
to dye yarn of a cinnamon colour. It is one of the trees 
to which the necessitous Kamtschatdales are often obliged 
to recur for their daily bread, which they make of the 
inner bark, ground into flour. 

The bark of this Willow has in some cases been found 
a good substitute for the Peruvian bark. 

The Grey Willow, or Sallow, Salix cinerea, grows 
from six to twelve feet high. In many parts of England, 
children gather the flowering branches of this tree on 
Palm Sunday, and call them Palms. With the bark, 
the inhabitants of the Highlands and the Hebrides tan 
leather. The wood, which is soft, white, and flexible, is 
made into handles for hatchets, spades, &c. It also 
furnishes shoemakers with their cutting-boards, and whet- 
ting-boards to smooth the edges of their knives upon. 

The species hitherto mentioned are all Britons ; the 
Weeping Willow, Salix Bahylonica^ is a native of the 
Levant ; and, according to horticultural records, was not 
cultivated in this country till 1730. 

This tree, with its long, slender, pendulous branches, 
is surely one of the most elegant ornaments of EngHsh 
scenery. The situation which it affects, also, on the mar- 
gins of brooks or rivers, increases its beauty, of which, 
like Narcissus, it often seems to bend over the water for 
the purpose of admiring the reflection : 

" Shadowy trees, that lean 

So elegantly o'er the water's brim." 

The Willows are in general quick of growth ; and if 
the accounts be correct, of the time of the introduction 

c c 2 



588 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



of this species into England, this must grow particularly 
fast, since there are some very fine trees in this country, 
even in the neighbourhood of London. There is a fine 
Weeping Willow in a garden near the Paddington end 
of the New Road, and a most magnificent one, also, in a 
garden on the banks of the Thames, just beyond Rich- 
mond Bridge, on the Richmond side of the river. 
Several of the arms of this tree are so large, that one of 
them would in itself form a fine tree. They are propped 
by a number of stout poles ; and the tree appears in a 
flourishing condition. If that tree be no more than 
ninety-five years old, the quickness of its growth is in- 
deed astonishing. 

Martyn relates an interesting anecdote, which he gives 
on the authority of the St. James's Chronicle for August 
1801: — 

" The famous and admired Weeping Willow planted 
by Pope, which has lately been felled to the ground, 
came from Spain, enclosing a present for Lady Suffolk. 
Mr, Pope was in company when the covering was taken 
off ; he observed that the pieces of stick appeared as if 
they had some vegetation ; and added, ' Perhaps they 
m.ay produce something we have not in England.' Under 
this idea he planted it in his garden, and it produced the 
AVillow tree that has given birth to so many others.'"' 

According to the account before-mentioned, this tree 
could not have been more than fourteen years old when 
Pope died. It is said, with what truth the reader must 
judge, that the destruction of this tree was caused by the 
eager curiosity of the admirers of the poet, who, by their 
numbers, so disturbed the quiet, and fatigued the pa- 
tience of the possessor, Avith applications to be permitted 



WILLOW TREE 



S89 



to see this precious relic, that to put an end to the trouble 
at once and for ever, she gave orders that it should be 
felled to the ground. 

The Weeping Willow is most appropriately named, 
for, in addition to the pensive drooping appearance of its 
branches, it is common to see little drops of water, which 
stand like fallen tears upon the leaves. The willow will 
grow in any but a dry soil, but most delights and best 
thrives in the immediate neighbourhood of water. The 
Willow, in poetical language, commonly introduces a 
stream, or a forsaken lover : 

" Fluminibus salices, crassisque paliitlibus alni 
Nascuntur;" — 

says Virgil. 

" Willows grow about rivers, and alders in muddy marshes." 

We pass a gulf, in which the willows dip 
Their pendent boughs, stooping as if to drink." 

COWPER. 

Chatterton describes 

" The willow, shadowing the bubbling brook." 

Poplars and willows trembling o'er the floods," 

says Pope, in his translation of Homer's Odyssey. It 
would be pleasant to imagine him sitting under his own 
Willow as he wrote the line, but that, unfortunately, the 
Odyssey was published before the tree was planted. 
Churchill mentions, among other trees, 

The willow weeping o'er the fatal wave. 
Where many a lover finds a watery grave ; 
The cypress, sacred held when lovers mourn 
Their true love snatched away" — 



390 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Concava vallis erat : qua se demittere rivi 
Assuerant pluvialis aquae. Tenet ima lacunas 
Lenta salix, ulvoeque leves_, juncique palustres, 
Virainaque, et longa parvs sub arundine cannae/' 

OviD^ Met. lib. viii. 

^' A hollow vale^ where watery torrents gush. 
Sinks in the plain ; the osier, and the rush. 
The marshy sedge, and bending willow nod 
Their trailing foliage o'er its oozy sod." 

Dr. Orger's Ovid. 

" Through all, a streamlet from its mountain source. 
Seen but by stealth, pursued its willowy course." 

Montgomery. 

" Odours abroad the winds of morning breathe. 
And fresh with dew the herbage sprang beneath : 
Down from the hills that gently sloped away 
To the broad river shining into day. 
They passed ; along the brink the path they kept 
Where high aloof o'erarching willows wept : 
Whose silvery foliage glistened in the beam. 
And floating shadows fringed the chequered stream." 

Montgomery. 

Virgil remarks the hoary leaf of the Willow : 

" Populus, et glauca canentia fronde salicta." 

Georgic ii. 

Which Martyn renders — 

" The poplar, and the willow with hoary bluish leaves." 

Shakespeare beautifully describes the scene of Ophelia's 
death : 

" There is a willow grows ascant the brook. 

That shows his hoar leaves in the grassy stream ; 
There with fantastic garlands did she make. 
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples. 
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name. 



WILLOW TREE. 



391 



But our cold maids do deadmen's fingers call them : 
There on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds 
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke ; 
^Vhen down her weedy trophies and herself 
Fell in the weeping brook*." 

Cowper, speaking of the different hues of trees, says 
they are 

" — ■ paler some. 

And of a wannish gray ; the willow such. 
And poplar that with silver lines his leaf." 

" Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum. 

To him who muses through the woods at noon ; 
Or drowsy shepherd, as he lies reclined. 
With half-shut eyes, beneath the floating shade 
Of willows grey, close-crowding o'er the brook." 

Thomson. 

There are several songs in which despairing lovers call 
upon the Willow tree : 

" Ah, willow ! willow ! 
The willow shall be 
A garland for me. 
Ah, willow ! willow !" 

Chatterton has one, of which the burthen runs— 

" Mie love ys dedde, 

Gon to hys deathe-bedde, 
Al under the wyllowe tree." 

In the Two Noble Kinsmen, said to have been written 
by Shakespeare and Fletcher, a young girl, who loses 
her wit with hopeless love for Palamon, — 
She sung 

Nothing but * Willow ! willow ! willow !' and between 
Ever was * Palamon, fair Palamon !" 



* Hamlet, Act iv. Scene 7, 



S92 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Shakespeare, in allusion to Dido's being forsaken by 

.EneaKS, says- — 

In such a night, 

Stocd Dido, with a willow in her hand. 
Upon the wild sea-banks, and waved her love 
To come again to Carthage." 

Spenser designates it as 

" The willow worn of forlorn paramours/' 

Herrick thus addresses the Willow tree : 

' ^ Thou art to all lost love the best. 
The only true plant found ; 
Wherewith young men and maids distrest. 
And left of love, are crowned. 

When once the lover's rose is dead. 

Or laid aside forlorn ; 
Then willow garlands 'bout the head. 

Bedewed with tears, are worn. 

When with neglect, the lover's bane. 

Poor maids rewarded be 
For their love lost, their only gain 

Is but a wreath from thee. 

And underneath thy cooling shade, 

When weary of the light. 
The love-spent youth and love-sick maid 

Come to weep out the night." 

This poet has some lines addressed to a Willow gar- 
land also, which, as his poems are not very readily at 
hand, may be added : 

" A willow garland thou didst send 
Perfumed, last day, to me ; 
Which did but only this portend, 
I was forsook by thee. 



WILLOW TREE. 



393 



Since so it is, I'll tell thee what ; 

To-morrow thou shalt see 
Me wear the willow, after that 

To die upon the tree. 

As beasts unto the altars go 

With garlands dressed, so I 
Will with ray willow wreath also 

Come forth, and sweetly die." 

The Willow seems, from the oldest times, to have 
been dedicated to grief : under them the children of 
Israel seem to have lamented their captivity : 

" By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea we wept 
when we remembered Zion : we hanged our harps upon the willows 
in the midst thereof." 

Psalms. 

The ancient Britons used boats made of wicker covered 
with skins, for passing rivers and arms of the sea : 

Primum cana salix madefacto vimine parvam 
Texitur in puppim, caesaque induta juvenca, 
Vectoris patiens, tumidam superemicat amnera. 
Sic Venetus, stagnante Pado, fusoque Britannus 
Navigat oceano." 

LucAX, book iv. 

" The bending willow into barks they twine. 

Then line the work with spoils of slaughtered kine ; 
Such are the floats Venetian fishers know, 
W^here in dull marshes stands the settHng Po. 
On such to neighbouring Gaul, allured by gain. 
The bolder Britons cross the swelling main." 

Rowe's Lucan. 

Wicker baskets were made by our forefathers in very 
early times, for Martial speaks of them : 

" Barbara de pictis veni Bascauda Britannis . 
Sed me jam mavult dicere Roma suam." 



394 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



From Britain's painted sons I came. 

And basket is my barbarous name. 

Yet nov\'^ I am so modish grown. 

That Rome would claim me for her own*." 

The Romans used twigs of Willow to bind their vines : 
this, and their being used for various sorts of wdcker- 
ivork, gives occasion to Virgil to notice the twags it 
affords, as he speaks of the leaves of the elm wdth which 
cattle were fed : 

Viminibus salices foecundae, frondibus ulmi :" 

Georgic ii. 

" The willows abound with twigs, the elm with leaves." 

Martyn. 

The Spanish poet, Garcilasso, dedicates the Willow 
to his mistress, which appears rather an equivocal com- 
pliment : 

For Daphne's laurel Phoebus gave his voice. 
The towering poplar charmed stern Hercules ; 

The myrtle sweet, w^hose gifted flowers rejoice 

Young hearts in love, did most v/arm Venus please ; 

The little green willow is my Fierid's choice. 
She gathers it amidst a thousand trees : 

Thus laurel, poplar, and sweet myrtle now. 

Where'er it grows, shall to the willow bow." 

Wiffen's Garcilasso. 

Some of the smallest trees known are Willows; nay, 
the smallest tree known, without any exception. Several 
of the species do not exceed a foot in height ; but the 
Herbaceous Willow, Salix herhacea^ is seldom higher 
than three inches, sometimes not more than two; and 

* This is a curious instance of the antiquity of the word basket, 
which may fairly be derived from hascauda. 



WILLOW TREE. 



395 



yet it is in every respect a tree, notwithstanding the 
name herbaceous, which, as it has been observed, is inap- 
propriate. Dr. Clarke says, in his Travels in Norway, — 

" We soon recognised some of our old Lapland ac- 
quaintances, such as Betula nana, with its minute leaves, 
Hke silver pennies ; mountain-birch ; and the dwarf al- 
pine species of willow : of which half a dozen trees, with 
all their branches, leaves, flowers, and roots, might be 
compressed within two of the pages of a lady's pocket- 
book, without coming into contact with each other. 

" After our return to England, specimens of the Salix 
lierhacea were given to our friends, which, when framed 
and glazed, had the appearance of miniature drawings. 
The author, in collecting them for his herbary, has fre- 
quently compressed twenty of these trees between two of 
the pages of a duodecimo volume. ' Minima,' says 
Linnaeus, ' inter omnes arbores est hsec salix.' — ' This 
willow is the least of all trees*.' " 

The same author observes, that in the great northern 
forests, he found a species of willow, " that w ould make 
a splendid ornament in our Enghsh shrubberies, owing 
to its quick growth, and beautiful appearance. It had 
much more the appearance of an orange than of a willow 
tree, its large luxuriant leaves being of the most vivid 
green colour, splendidly shining. We believed it to be 
a variety of Salix amygdalina, but it may be a distinct 
species : it principally flourishes in Westro Bothnia, and 
we never saw it elsewhere 

* Clarke's Travels, vol. iii. p. 69L 
+ Ibid. p. 254. 



YEW TREE. 



TAXUS BACCATA. 

TAXIDE.E. DICECIA MONADELPHIA. 

French, if ; Italian, tasso, libo. 

The Yew tree is a native of Europe, North America, 
and Japan, particularly in mountainous woods, or the 
clefts of high calcareous rocks. It is indigenous of Eng- 
land and Scotland, and is supposed formerly to have 
grown wild in Ireland also, by the numbers found there 
in a fossil state ; but at present there are none but planted 
Yews growing in that country. 

It was a custom with our ancestors to plant Yews near 
their houses and churches. Dr. Aikin supposes it to 
have been planted near houses, merely for the absurd 
purpose of forming it into grotesque figures ; the yew 
being particularly submissive to such treatment. Dr. 
Hunter says they vvere placed there, to be at hand for 
the sturdy bows of our warlike ancestors ; 

Who drew. 

And almost joined the horns of the tough yew.'' 

Both may be right in some degree; they may have 
furnished bows while bows were in fashion with our war- 
riors, and afterwards have been converted into the figures 
of which Dr. Aikin speaks. That both these fashions 
reigned at once, it would be painful to conceive : how 
grievous, on the eve of a new war, for all the green eagles 
to be shorn of their wings, the green bulls of their horns, 
he. ! 



YEW TREE. 



397 



Again, for the custom of planting the Yew in church- 
yards, Dr. Aikin thinks it probable that it was from its 
being an evergreen, and furnishing boughs for the de- 
coration of churches at Christmas. Yew, however, does 
not appear to have been commonly used for that purpose. 
In Brand's Popular Antiquities, the plants chiefly men- 
tioned as adorninff churches at the Christmas season are 
bay, rosemary, holly, ivy, and mistletoe. Cypress is 
added upon one occasion ; and Mr. Brand observes, 
" In this account, the Cypress is quite a new article; 
indeed I should as soon have expected to have seen the 
Yew as the Cypress used on this joyful occasion.'"* The 
editor gives a note upon this passage, saying that Coles, 
in his Art of Simpling, afiirms that " in some places, 
the setting up of holly, ivy, rosemary, bays, yew, &c. 
in churches at Christmas, is still in use;"' and that 
Parkinson speaks of houses being adorned with box 
and yew 

Tliis passage makes it appear that Yew was not very 
generally used at the Christmas festival ; and had a tree 
been planted in churchyards for that use, it would 
more probably have been the holly, which was never 
omitted. 

Sir Thomas Browne supposes the planting of Yews in 
churchyards to derive its origin from ancient funeral 
rites, being, on account of its perpetual verdure, used as 
a symbol of the resurrection. Evelyn is of the same 
opinion. 

Dr. Hunter thinks that the best reason to be given for 
it is, that the branches were often carried in procession 
on Palm Sunday instead of Palm, and gives an extract 



* Brand's Popular Antiquities, 4to. vol. i. p. 408. 



398 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



from Caxton's Directions for keeping all the feasts of 
the year (printed in 1483) as decisive on this point. 

<t Wlierfor holy church this day maketh solemn pro- 
cession, in mind of the procession that Christ made this 
day; but for enclieson that we have none olive that 
beareth green leaf, algate therefore we take Yew instead 
of palm and olive, and bear about in procession ; and so 
is this day called Palm-Sunday." 

" As a confirmation of this fact," adds Dr. Hunter, 
" the Yew trees in the churchyards of East Kent are to 
this day called palms." 

Dr. Trussler supposes the Yew to have been planted 
in churchyards for the purpose of making bows, and 
such places particularly chosen, because fenced from 
cattle. But to this Mr. Brand very justly objects, that 
other plantations also are fenced from cattle, adding, 
" Why, too, should there usually be but one Yew tree 
in each churchyard*? 

These were evidently placed near the church for some 
religious purpose, from the great value set upon a con- 
secrated Yew, in comparison with another Yew tree, in 
the following list of the comparative value of trees, taken, 
as Martyn tells us, from the ancient laws of Wales. 



A Consecrated Yew 


- £1 


0 


0 


An oak _ - - - 


0 


10 


0 


A mistletoe branch 


0 


5 


0 


A principal oak branch 


0 


2 


6 


A sweet apple tree 


0 


5 


0 


A sour apple tree 


0 


2 


6 


A Wood Yew Tree 


0 


1 


3 


A thorn tree - 


0 


0 




Every tree after that - 


0 


0 


4 



* Brand's Popular Antiquities. 



YEW TREE. 



399 



Our forefathers,'" says Martyn, " were particularly 
careful to preserve this funereal tree, whose branches it 
was usual to carry in solemn procession to the grave, and 
afterwards to deposit therein under the bodies of their 
departed friends. Oui' learned Ray says, that our an- 
cestors planted the Yew in churchyards, because it was 
an evergreen tree, as a symbol of that immortality which 
they hoped and expected for the persons there deposited. 
For the same reason this and other evergreen trees are 
even yet carried in funerals, and thrown into the grave 
with the body ; in some parts of England, and in Wales, 
planted with flowers upon the grave itself*." 

Sir Thomas Bro^vne observes, that the Christian custom 
of decking the coffin with bay is an elegant emblem, be- 
cause this tree, when apparently dead, has often been 
known to revive from the root, and to resume its wonted 
verdure. 

From a passage in Shakespeare we might suppose that 
sprigs of Yew were put within the coffin also. 

" My shroud of white, stuck all with yew 
O prepare it !" 

Blair says, addressing himself to the grave, 

" Well do I know thee hy thy trusty yew. 
Cheerless, unsocial plant, that loves to dwell 
'Midst skulls and coffins, epitaphs and wornn.s; 
Where light-heeled ghosts, and visionary shades. 
Beneath the wan cold moon, (so fame reports), 
Embody 'd, thick, perform their mystic rounds. 
No other merriment, dull tree, is thine." 

" The yew, which, in the place of sculptured stone, 
Marks out the resting-place of men unknown." 

Churchill. 



* Martyn's Miller's Dictionary. 



400 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Harte very appropriately places the yew and cypress 
in the same avenue, leading to the palace of death : 

" Dark cypresses the skirting sides adorned. 

And gloomy yew-trees, which for ever mourned." 

Vision of Death. 

Sir Walter Scott describes the melancholy appearance 
of the yew tree : — 

But here 'twixt rock and river grew 
A dismal grove of sable yew, 
With whose sad tints were mingled seen 
The blighted fir's sepulchral green ■. 
Seemed that the trees their shadows cast 
The earth that nourished them to blast, 
For never knew that swarthy grove 
The verdant hue that fairies love : 
Nor mlding green nor woodland flower, 
Arose within its baleful bower : 
The dank and sable earth receives 
Its only carpet from the leaves 
That, from the -withering branches cast. 
Bestrewed the ground with every blast." 

Rokeby, canto ii. 

Clorin^ in the Faithful Shepherdess, having retired 
from the world upon the loss of her lover, says . 

" ■ Yon same dell 

O'ertopped with mourning cypress and sad yew. 
Shall be my cabin ; where I'll early rue. 
Before the sun has kissed this dew away. 
The hard uncertain chance which fate doth lay 
Upon this head." 

The uncommon pKancy of the Yew, together with its 
toughness, made it particularly proper for bows; and 



YEW TKEE. 



401 



those made of Yew were esteemed superior to every other. 
The flexibihty of this tree is such, that it was considered 
without a rival for topiary works. Spenser terms it 
" The eugh obedient to the bender's will." 

In the days of archery, the w^ood was in such request, 
that not finding at home a sufficient supply for the bowyers, 
the merchants were obliged by law to import four staves 
of it for every ton of goods coming from places whence 
bow-staves had formerly been brought. 

By the fifth of Edward the Fourth, it was directed 
that every Englishman in Ireland, and Irishman dwelling 
with Englishmen, should have an EngHsh bow of his ow^n 
height, made of Yew, wych, hazel, ash, or awburne, 
(supposed to be the alder). 

" Formerly,"*' says Mr. Gilpin, "the yew was what 
the oak is now, the basis of our strength. Of it, the 
English yeoman made his long-bow, which he vaunted 
nobody but an Englishman could bend. In shooting, 
he did not, as in other nations, keep his left hand steady, 
and draw his bow with the right, but, keeping his hand 
at rest upon the nerve, he pressed the whole weight of 
his body into the horns^ of his bow. Hence arose the 
Enghsh phrase of bending a botv, and the French of 
drawing one.'' 

The Yew bow was not by any means confined to our 
ancestors however, though the Enghsh bow could be 
bent only by an Englishman. (Ulysses probably never 
made the attempt). It is mentioned by Virgil, in his 
second Georgic : 

Ityrasos taxi torquentur in arcus." 
The yews were bent into Ityrsean bows." 
Martyn observes in a note, that the Ityrsi w^re a 
people of Ccelo-Syria, famous for shooting with a bow. 

D D 



402 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



In Harte's Statius, the extraordinary celerity of two 
youths in the race is expressed by a comparison with the 
flight of an arrow from a bow of yew : 

^' Each, like an arrow from the Parthian yew. 
Sent with full force, along the circus flew." 

Spenser tells us that when St. George fought with the 
dragon, the monster pounced upon, snatched him and his 
horse from the ground, and 

" Long he them bore above the subject plain. 
So far as yewen bow a shaft may send ; 
Till struggling strong, did him at last constrain 
To let them down before bis flightesend." 

W. Browne describes it as 

The warlike yewgh by which, m.ore than the lance. 
The strong-armed English spirits conquer'd France." 

Fairfax poetically designates the tree as 
The shooter yew." 

Chaucer uses the same epithet. 

The Yew has the reputation of being poisonous. 
Authors differ as to the degree ; and so, probably, do 
the trees themselves. Evelyn endeavours to persuade 
himself that there is no foundation for this ill opinion of 
the tree ; but he relates some instances recorded of its 
sins in this way. 

Mr. White, in his History of Selbourne, gives several 
instances in which it has proved fatal to animals ; and 
Dr. Hunter mentions others, equally fatal, of its effects 
upon the human species. Many others have been told 
by various writers, ancient and modern. Csesar, in his 
Gallic War, relates that Cativulcus, king of the Ebu- 
rones, killed himself by drinking a draught of Yew. 



YEW TllEE, 



405 



Dioscorides says, that a decoction of Yew leaves occasions 
death. 

Old Gerarde says, The Yew-tree, as Galen reporteth, 
is of a venomous quality, and against man's nature. 
Dioscorides writeth, and generally all that heretofore 
have dealt in the facultie of herbarisme, that the Yew 
tree is very venomous to be taken inwardly ; and that if 
any doe sleepe under the shadowe thereof, it causeth 
sicknesse, and oftentimes death. Moreover, they say 
that the fruit thereof being eaten, is not only dangerous 
and deadly unto man, but if birds do eat thereof, it 
causeth them to cast their feathers, and many times to 
die. All which I dare boldly affirm is altogether untrue ; 
for when I was young and went to schoole, divers of my 
schoole-fellowes, and likewise myselfe, did eat our fils 
of the berries of this tree, and have not only slept under 
the shadow thereof, but among the branches also, 
without any hurt at all ; and that not one time, but 

many times 

. . . " Daily experience shows it to be true, that the 
Yew tree in England is not poisonous ; yet divers affirme 
that in Provence in France, and in most hot countries, it 
hath such a maligne qualitie, that it is not safe to sleepe, 
or long to rest under the shadowe thereof." 

Some believe the leaf to be poisonous, and not the 
berry. Southey speaks of it in this manner : of the 
berries he speaks as having eaten them. Regretting some 
trees that had been felled, he says — 

" If he had played about here when a child 
In that fore-court, and eat the yew berrieS;, 
And sate in the porch threading the jessamine flowers. 
Which fell so thick, he had not had the heart 
To mar all thus." 

Of the leaves he gives a dift'erent character : 



404 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Sure this is better 

Than a great hedge of yew that makes it look 
All the year round like winter, and for ever 
Dropping its poisonous leaves from the under boughs. 
Withered and bare !" 

So he takes the opportunity of affording a reasonable 
argument, both to the friend and the enemy of the tree. 

Martyn, in his notes on Virgil, says, " The berries of 
the yew are said by Pliny to be poisonous. The leaves 
also, are said by the ancients to be destructive to horses, 
which we find to be true in England. The berries have 
been eaten by myself and many others with impunity : 
but this may be owing to the difference of climate ; for 
Dioscorides, who says it is not alike poisonous in all 
places, affirms that the berries are poisonous in Italy, and 
the shade hurtful in Narbonne. Perhaps the species may 
be different, for there is mention of a sort of Yew in the 
Pisa garden, which is more bushy than the common, and 
has leaves more like a fir; and sends forth such a poisonous 
smell when it is clipped, that the gardeners cannot work 
at it above half an hour at a time*." 

Virgil calls it noxious : 

" Taxique nocentes." 

The honey of Corsica is notoriously unwholesome, 
which Virgil apparently attributes to the bees feeding 
upon the Yew. He seems to think the Corsican Yew 
particularly hurtful : 

^' Sic tua Cyrneas fugiant examina taxos.'' 

Georgic iv. 

So may thy bees avoid the yews of Corsica." 



* Martyn's Virgil, p. 166. 



YEW TREE. 



405 



In the fourth Georgic he desires that there be no Yew 
trees near their hives : 

Neu propius tectis taxum sine." 

Wordsworth speaks of the Yew as rather disagreeable 
to bees than injurious : 

^' Nay, traveller ! rest. This lovely yew-tree stands 
Far from all human dwelling : what if here 
No sparkling rivulet spread the verdant herb ? 
\Vliat if these barren boughs the bees not love ? 
Yet if the wind breathe soft, the curling waves 
That break against the shore, shall lull thy mind 
By one soft impulse saved from vacancy 

Louring in the groves of death. 
Yew trees breathe funereal breath." 

Harte. 

^' The resin soft, and solitary yew 

For ever dropping with unwholesome dew." 

Harte's Statius. 

It may be worthy the attention of the humane to con- 
sider how far the melancholy character of the Yew may 
proceed from its solitary hfe. Dean Swift throws out a 
hint on this subject which might be turned to advantage. 
The story of Baucis and Philemon is, doubtless, famihar 
to the reader. Some writers have affirmed that the 
hospitable couple were transformed to limes, but the 
Dean contradicts this assertion : — 

" Description would but tire my muse : 
In short, they both were turned to yews. 
Old Goodman Dobson of the green 

* Lines left on a seat in a yew tree, near the Lake of Esthwaite 
on a desolate part of the shore. 

E E 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Remembers he the trees has seen ; 
He'll talk of them from noon till night. 
And goes v>-ith folks to show die sight. 
On Sundays, after evening prayer, 
He gathers all the parish there ; 
Points out the place of either yew, 
Here Baucis, there Philemon gTew : 
Till once a parson of our town. 
To mend his barn, cut Saucis down ; 
At which 'tis bard to be believed 
How much the other tree was grieved. 
Grew scrubbed, died a-top, w-as stunted ; 
So the next parson stubbed and burnt it." 

It ^vas rather an extravagance, surely, in the parson to 
cut down Baucis merely to mend his barn, since the Yew 
affords a veined wood, very hard and smooth, and valued 
by turners, inlayers, and cabinet-makers : 

■■ — Their beauteous veins the yew 

And phyllerea lend, to surface o'er 
The cabinet." 

Mr. Gilpin is a great admirer of the Yew tree, and 
bitterly resents the manner in which it was so frequently 
sliorn and shivered into all sorts of odd forms. " In a 
state of nature,"" says he, " except in exposed situations, 
it is perhaps one of the most beautiful evergreens we 
have*.*^ 

It is one of the trees mentioned by Virgil as indicating 
a cold and barren soil. 

Although the Yew is of very slow growth, it is a long 
liver, and some have accordingly grown to an immense 
bulk. Several have been recorded as measuring twenty- 



* Gilpin's Forest Scenery, 



YEW TREE. 



407 



six feet round the largest part of the trunk. We will 
pass on to a few of less common magnitude. 

Mr. Pennant mentions one in Fotherin2:al church- 
yard, in the Elighlands, the ruins of which measured 
fifty-six feet and a half in circumference. Mr. Evelyn 
speaks of one in the churchyard of Crowhurst, in 
Surrey, ten yards in circumference ; and of another, a 
superannuated Yew tree in Braburne churchyard in 
Kent, measuring fifty-eight feet, and eleven inches 
round ; giving a diameter of about six yards and a half. 

This author tells an odd story, quoted from Cam- 
den, relating to the Yew tree, and the origin of the name 
of Hahfax, that may not be uninteresting. 

" One thing more, while I am speaking of this tree : 
It reminds me of that very odd story I find related by 
Mr. Camden, of a certain amorous clergyman, that falling 
in love with a pretty maid, who refused his addresses, 
cut off her head.., which being hung upon a Yew^ tree till 
it was quite decayed, the tree w^as reputed as sacred, not 
only while the virgin's head hung on it, but as long as 
the tree itself lasted : to which the people went in pil- 
grimage, plucking and bearing away branches of it, as an 
holy rehque, w hilst there remained any of the trunk ; 
persuading themselves that those small veins and fila- 
ments, resembhng hairs, between the bark and body of 
the tree, were the hairs of the virgin. But what is yet 
stranger, the resort to this place, then called Houton, a 
despicable villag'e, occasioned the building of the now 
famous town of Halifax in Yorkshire, w-hich imports 
holy hair."^ 

AVordsworth gives an admirable description of some 
Yews of large size, in which he mentions the extreme 
slowness of their growth : 



408 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



There is a ye>v tree, pride of Lorton Vale^ 

\rhich to this day stands single in the midst 

Of its own darkness, as it stood of yore. 

Not loth to furnish weapons in the hands 

Of Umfraville or Percy, ere they marched 

To Scotland's heaths, or those that crossed the sea 

And drew their sounding bows at Azincour ; 

Perhaps at earlier Cressy, or Poictiers. 

Of vast circumference, and gloom profound. 

This solitary tree ! a living thing 

Produced too slowly ever to decay ; 

Of form and aspect too magnificent 

To be destroyed. But worthier still of note 

Are those fraternal four of Borrowdale, 

Joined in one solemn and capacious grove ; 

Huge trunks ! arid each particular trunk a growth 

Of intertwisted fibres serpentine, 

Upcoiling, and inveterately convolved : 

Nor uninformed with phantasy, and looks 

That threaten the profane ; a pillared shade, 

Upon whose grassless floor of red-brown hue, 

By sheddings from the pining umbrage tinged 

Perennially ; — beneath whose sable roof 

Of boughs, as if for festal purpose, decked 

With unrejoicing berries, ghostly shapes 

May meet at noon-tide : Fear, and trembling hope. 

Silence and foresight — death the skeleton. 

And time the shadow, there to celebrate. 

As in a natural temple, scattered o'er 

With altars undisturbed of mossy stone. 

United worship ; or in mute repose 

To lie, and listen to the mountain-flood 

Murmuring from Gieramara's inmost caves." 

We cannot do better than conclude with this fine 
sage from one of the finest poets of our time. 

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oil tlie Poetical Literature and Language of the Netherlands. By John Bowring, 
Esq. and Harry S. Van Dvk, E?<j. Foolscap 8vo. Price 7s. 6d. 

XXVI. 

'i'hc HUMAN HEART, a Series of Tales. By the Author of May You Like It. 
Post 8vo. Price 10.?. 6d. 

XXVII. 

LETTERS from MECKLENBURGH and HOLSTEIN, comprising an Account 
of the Free Cities of Hamhurgh and Lubeck. Written in the Summer of 1820. 
By George Dov, nes, A.B. late of Trinity College, Dublin. In 1 Vol 8vo. with 
three Engravings. Price 10.?. 6(1. 

XXVIIL 

SKETCHES of the PRINCIPAL PICTURE GALLERIES in ENGLAND. 
Foolscap 8vo. Price 5^. 

XXIX. 

ANCIENT POETRY and ROMANCES of SPAIN. Selected and Translated 
by John Bowring, Esq. Post 8vo. Price lOs. 6d. 

XXX. 

TOURS to the BRITISH MOUNTAINS', with the Descriptive Poems of Lowther 
and Eniont Vale. BvThgmas Wilkinson, of Yanwath, Westmorland. PriceS*. 6cf. 

XXXI. 

ELIA : ESSAYS which have appeared under that Signature in the London 
Magazine. Post 8vo. Price 9. 6d. 

XXXII. 

CONFESSIONS of an ENGLISH OPIUM EATER. Third Edition. Price 5^. 

XXXIII. 

JOURNAL of a TOUR in FRANCE, in the Years 1816 and 1817. By 
Frances Jane Carey. 8vo. Price 14*. 

XXXIV. 

POEMS, descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery. By John Clare, a North- 
amptonshire Peasant. Foolscap 8vo. The Fourth Edition. Price 5^. 6d, 

XXXV. 

The VILLAGE MINSTREL, and other POEJMS. By John Clare, with a 
Fine Portrait of the Author from a Painting by W. Hilton, R.A., and a Sketch of 
the Author's Cottage. In 2 Vols, foolscap 8vo. Second Edition. Price 12^. 

XXXVI. 

TRADITIONAL TALES of the ENGLISH and SCOTTISH PEASANTRY. 
By Allan Cunningham. 2 Vols. 12mo. Price 12^. 

XXXVII. 

SIR MARMADUKE MAXWELL, a Dram.atic Poem: The LEGEND of 
RICHARD FAULDER, The MERMAID of GALLOWAY, and TWENTY 
SCOTTISH SONGS. By Allan Cunningham. Second Edition, witb Corrections 
and Additions. 8vo. Price 8s. 6d. 

XXXVIII. 

A COURSE of PRACTICAL SERMONS, expressly adapted to be read in 
Families. By the Rev. Harvey Marriott, Rector of Claverton, and Chaplain to 
the Right Hon. Lord Kenyon. 8vo. Price IO5. 6d. boards. Third Edition. 

XXXIX. 

A SECOND and a THIRD COURSE of PRACTICAL SERMONS. By the 
Rev. Harvey Marriott. 8vo. Price 10.s. 6d. each. 



4; Books latelif Puhlhhed hij Taylor and Hessey. 

XL. 

HOMILIES for the YOUNG, and more especially for Children of the National 
Schools. By the Rev. Harvey MAKRroTx. I'imo. Price 55. 6d. boards. 

XLI. 

LETTERS on the I31P0RTANCE, DUTY, and ADVANTAGES of EARLY 
RISING. Addressed to Heads of Families, the iNIan of Business, the Lover of 
Nature, the Student, and the Christian. By A. C. Buckland. The Fifth Edition, 
with an additional Letter and a Preface. In foolscap 8vo. witli a beautiful Frontis- 
piece. Price (j.y. boards , 

XLII. 

LETTERS to an ATl^ORNEY'S CLERK, containing Directions for his Studies 
and General Conduct. Designed and Commenced by the late A. C. Buckland, 
Author of Letters on Early Rising, and completed by W. H. Buckland. Foolscap 
8vo. Price 7^. 

XLIII. 

A LETTER of ADVICE to his GRAND-CHILDREN, Matthew, Gabriel, Anne, 
iNIary, and Frances Hale. By Sir Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice in the 
reign of Charles 11. The Second Edition. Printed from an Original jManuscript, 
and collated witli the Copy in the British Museum. In foolscap 8vo. With a 
Portrait. Price ."^5. boards. 

XLIV. 

THE COUNSELS of a FATHER, in FOUR LETTERS of SIR MATTHEW 
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and a fine Portrait. Price bs. in boards. Third Edition. 

XLV. 

iMxVrERNAL SOLICITUDE for a DAUGHTER'S BEST INTERESTS. By 
Mrs. Taylor, of Ongar, with a Frontispiece. Price 'cs. in buards. Eleventh Edition. 

XLVL 

PRACTICAL HINTS to YOUNG FEMALES, on the Duties of a Wife, a 
iMother, and a JNIistress of a Family. By Mrs. Taylor, with a Frontispiece. 
Price bs. in boards. Eleventh Edition. 

XLVIL 

RECIPROCAL DUTIES of PARENTS and CHILDREN. By Mrs. Taylor. 
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XLVIII. 

RETROSPECTION : a Tale. By Mrs. Taylor. Foolscap 8vo. with a Frontis- 
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XLIX. 

The FAMILY MANSION: a Tale. By Mrs. Taylor. With a Frontispiece. 
Price bs. 6d.\\\ boards. Fourth Edition. 

L. 

The PRESENT of a .MISTRESS to a YOUNG SERVANT, consisting of friendly 
Advice and real Histories. By Mrs. Taylor. With a Frontispiece. Price 2>s,Qd. 
in boards. Seventh Edition. 

LI. 

CORRESPONDENCE between a MOTHER and her DAUGHTER at SCHOOL. 
By Mrs. Taylor and Miss Taylor. With a Frontispiece. Price bs. in boards. 
Fifth Edition. 

LII. 

DISPLAY : a Tale. By Jane Taylor, one of the Authors of Original Poems 
for Infant Minds. With a Frontispiece. Price 6s. in boards. Tenth Edition. 

LIII. 

ESSAYS in RHYME, on MORALS and IMANNERS. By Jane Taylor, 
Author of Display, &c. In foolscap 8vo. Price Gs. in boards. Fourth Edition. 



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